NEWS ROUNDUP

US 'biggest culprit' of climate change: WWF The United States, the world's top belcher of greenhouse gas emissions, is "the biggest culprit" of climate change, the WWF said Thursday, urging Washington to take swift action against global warming. "They are the biggest culprit and they are the biggest offender of climate," said Stephan Singer, head of the environmental group WWF's climate change policy unit. "The United States should take climate change seriously," Singer told reporters in Bangkok, where scientists around the world are attending the week-long session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's leading authority on global warming. While accusing the US of "ignoring science" on global warming, the WWF still urged Washington to lead the world in combating climate change....
Ritter signs Pinon Canyon bill but warns it may not be enough Even though he's not sure the state has the power to say "no" to the federal government, Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday signed a bill aimed at stopping the Army from using eminent domain to expand a training site in southeastern Colorado. Ranchers have mobilized to fight the Army's proposal to expand the Pinon Canyon maneuver site by 418,000 acres - or 653 square miles. That's nearly triple the land the Army now owns, and the expansion would swallow up dozens of ranches. The Army is still studying how the expansion would be accomplished, but officials say they can't rule out the use of eminent domain if the plans move ahead. Eminent domain is the power to force a landowner to sell to make way for a project for the public good. As ranchers, students and lawmakers looked on, Ritter said he didn't want the new law (House Bill 1069) to raise expectations that the state could definitely stop the Army from forcing ranchers to sell. But he said it is a tool the state can use to help protect ranchers whose families have been living in the area since the turn of the last century....
Bush administration again opposes Mount Hood wilderness expansion The Bush administration said Thursday it opposes a plan to expand the Mount Hood wilderness area -- the second time in as many years the administration has opposed plans to increase wilderness protections on Oregons highest peak. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who directs U.S. forest policy, said the administration opposes the wilderness bill as drafted, saying it moves to seal off more land than is appropriate and includes an unacceptable land swap. "While we strongly support public involvement and community collaboration, the concept of legislating management direction (on the mountain) is problematic," Rey told a Senate subcommittee. "We find the land exchange provisions and several of the wilderness designations to be especially troubling." Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith proposed the wilderness expansion in February. The plan would extend wilderness protection to an additional 128,600 acres surrounding Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. The bill would increase existing wilderness protection on the mountain by about two-thirds and add "wild and scenic" protection to nearly 80 miles of rivers. Rey said the administration could support as much as 59,000 acres of new wilderness on Mount Hood, but believes the current plan is too expansive....
Grizzly Delisting Will Test States, Forest Service My main concern is isolation. The Yellowstone ecosystem is one of six isolated grizzly populations south of Canada. Island populations are more vulnerable, especially without viable travel corridors to other populations to foster genetic diversity and to supplement low numbers. In most cases, wildlife scientists reject the idea of institutionalizing an island population. The same agency, even some of the same people in fact, have rejected the idea of delisting the wolf in the Yellowstone area only, insisting we should wait and remove the species in the entire recovery area (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) at one time. At this point, we do not have safe travel corridors for grizzlies to travel from northwestern Montana to the Yellowstone ecosystem, but this has not delayed delisting. The need for secure travel corridors puts pressure on the state agencies and the Forest Service (FS) to protect the habitat and security of these corridors from human activities that could prevent movement of grizzlies from one ecosystem to the other. Will this happen? Everybody agrees that the viability of the Yellowstone grizzly population depends on maintenance of key habitat outside of the national park, primarily in the surrounding national forests. The FS has woeful track record of protecting wildlife habitat, but in this case the agency has made commitments to protect critical bear habitat near the park. To meet this commitment, the agency must come through with the new policies required to make this a reality, such as realistic limits on motorized use of grizzly habitat. Will this really happen?....
Tribe presses N-waste fight The Skull Valley Goshutes and their private-industry partners are trying to dodge a new obstacle in their fight for permission to store nuclear-reactor waste in Tooele County. In a Washington, D.C., appeals court, the state of Utah is pushing to have the project's license put on ice until the Skull Valley Band and its partners clear two other stumbling blocks created last fall by the U.S. Interior Department. The state, the nuclear project's harshest critic, has argued in legal papers over the past two months that the court should not bother making any final decision now on the project's license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. First, the state insists, project proponents must prove they have approval to get the waste to the site and secure a valid lease. A ruling last September from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management blocked the transportation plan. Another issued the same day by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs nixed a required lease agreement between Private Fuel Storage and the Goshutes. The rulings from the Interior Department agencies prompted U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and state leaders to declare the nuclear project "dead." Proponents have pressed forward anyhow. PFS and the tribe indicate in the latest flurry of legal papers that they plan to appeal both Interior Department decisions, although they have not done so yet. They have more than five years to appeal the rulings in court. Their plans call for storing up to 44,000 tons of used reactor waste on a 100-acre pad just across the highway from the tribal village in Tooele County, about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The high-level radioactive waste would be parked on the pads for up to 40 years in steel-and-concrete containers....
BLM mostly backs Colorado River land-swap bill A proposed land deal aimed at preserving scenic areas along the Colorado River received the backing of the Bureau of Land Management on Thursday, although the agency said it would like to see some changes in the proposed swap. The Utah Recreational Land Exchange Act would transfer about 45,000 acres of scattered parcels managed by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration along the Colorado River to the federal government, including areas popular with bicyclists and river rafters. In exchange, the state trust would get about 40,000 acres of federal lands, which hold more potential for economic development. The bill is supported by the trust lands administration, as well as various environmental groups, which spent months negotiating the terms. "It's such a logical idea that it's hard to get done," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. BLM Director Jim Hughes said the agency has some concerns about the way the potential value of oil shale would be appraised, and it is not comfortable with restrictions on oil and gas drilling and mining on the lands BLM would receive. But, Hughes said, the BLM supports the goal of the legislation and hopes to resolve the issues....
Skepticism greets $36M offer by anticline drillers A $36 million offer by three energy producers to improve wildlife habitat and preserve migration routes around their gas drilling sites in the Pinedale Anticline in western Wyoming met with skepticism from conservationists. While the offer is generous, whether it will succeed is in question, according to Linda Baker of the Upper Green River Valley Coalition, which represents landowners in the valley. "It seems to me that before we invest any more money into mitigation, that we have a realistic plan for success," Baker said. The $36 million offer from Questar Corp., Ultra Resources Inc., and Shell Exploration and Production Co. comes as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management crafts a plan for expanded drilling in the anticline south of Pinedale. The companies are seeking 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. Baker said Wednesday that additional wells should be limited to core areas, with surrounding areas set aside and maintained for wildlife. Ultra, Shell and Questar promised to leave the outskirts of the anticline alone and continue studies on how gas development affects habitat and wildlife if the companies can concentrate drilling in certain areas of the anticline....
Groups want judge to enforce Eagle Mountain land-swap ruling Inland environmental groups asked a federal judge to enforce his 2005 ruling that struck down a land swap and effectively quashed an effort to turn an old iron-ore mine into one of the nation's largest landfills near Joshua Tree National Park. The groups contend that those involved in the land swap -- Ontario-based Kaiser Ventures and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management -- have done little to put the land back into public hands. In addition, they said, Kaiser has leased its adjacent lands to a company that allows the military to conduct exercises with live munitions and helicopters in a fragile desert environment. A June 4 hearing has been scheduled on the matter before U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin. At issue is a 1999 land swap between the bureau and Kaiser, which wanted to turn its old iron-ore pits into the proposed Eagle Mountain landfill. The federal agency gave Kaiser 3,481 acres of public land around the old Kaiser Steel Co. mining pits to be used for a landfill. In return, Kaiser gave the bureau almost 2,500 acres of land along its 52-mile railroad in Riverside County....
US must focus on species's survival, Interior Secretary says The United States needed to focus more on ensuring the survival of wildlife rather than concentrating on listing species as endangered, U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said Friday. Kempthorne is under fire over the Bush administration's new interpretation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which critics say jeopardizes animals such as wolves and grizzly bears. The new reading of the law proposed by the Interior Department would enable the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect animals and plants only where they are battling for survival. The agency would not have to protect them where they are in good shape. Kempthorne, in Canberra to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, said Friday he did not believe the new direction damaged his administration's environment credentials. "I think we need to put greater emphasis on recovery and efforts in that direction," Kempthorne told reporters, adding that only one percent of the 1,500 species listed as endangered in the past 30 years had recovered. As an example, he said the government was moving to improve the habitat of the of sage grouse, whose numbers are declining, so that that bird is never listed as endangered....
Griz-human conflicts are likely to rise Grizzly bear 398 walked west through the snow covering the towering Teton Range this spring, living the good life in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. The 16-year-old male grizzly was at the top of the pecking order for predators in the region, so he could pick his territory. He chose the forests and meadows around Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. There, he had an ample supply of elk calves, roots, whitebark pine nuts and winter-killed moose and deer to eat. Biologists had captured him for research that allowed them map his range with global positioning systems. He had lived his entire life naturally and without incident just yards from hundreds of thousands of national park visitors. His existence was a walking testimonial to the recovery program that had brought Yellowstone's bears back from the brink of extinction. On Monday, grizzly bears were removed from the threatened species list. But grizzly 398's attack on 33-year-old Tetonia carpenter Timothy Henderson on April 10 and his own death at the hands of wardens and deputies four days later mars what is one of the early environmental success stories of the 21st century....
Canada's Tenth Mad Cow Rouses Concern South of the Border U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, introduced legislation today that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, from expanding imports of Canadian cattle until the agency implements a system that allows consumers to see in which country their meat was produced. That system, known as Country of Origin Labeling, COOL, was scheduled, by law, to be in place by September 30, 2004. But the Bush administration has delayed its implementation several times. It is now not scheduled to be in place until September 30, 2008. After the first Canadian mad cow was found in 2003, the United States banned the import of Canadian beef, but in 2006 lifted the ban for some products. Currently cattle from Canada younger than 30 months, and boxed beef are allowed to enter the United States. In January, the Bush administration proposed allowing animals older than 30 months to enter the U.S. sometime later this year. "There is no longer any excuse for delaying implementation of COOL," Dorgan said today. "Consumers have the right to know where their meat is coming from, and to make their own decision - fully informed decisions - about whether they want to be putting beef from Canada on their dinner table, under the current circumstances. Speaking for the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, R-CALF USA, CEO Bill Bullard agrees. From his office in Billings, Montana, Bullard said, "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed its responsibility to adequately protect the U.S. cattle herd, the U.S. beef supply, U.S. export markets and U.S. consumers from Canada’s widespread problem with bovine spongiform encephalopathy." "Despite a very limited amount of testing, six cases of BSE have been confirmed in Canadian cattle born after Canada implemented its feed ban in 1997 – despite USDA’s unsupported insistence that the Canadian feed ban has been effective in preventing the spread of the disease," Bullard said....
Cloning: Scientists vs. Consumers Should the U.S. become the first country in the world to allow food from cloned animals onto supermarket shelves? That is the debate that has raged at the Food & Drug Administration for four months, until the period for public comment on the issue closed on May 3. The FDA said on Dec. 28 that it was inclined to allow such foods into U.S. stores, based on the evidence it had reviewed, but asked for outside comment. With the public comment period closed, it's clear that the cloning debate boils down to scientists vs. consumers. Thousands of individuals wrote to the government to voice their opposition to the prospect of cloned products being allowed into the food supply. In large part, they made emotion appeals that cloning was immoral or that cloned food was repulsive. "Unethical, disturbing, and disgusting," wrote one consumer, Lea Askren. Scientists, on the other hand, are almost completely unified in their support of cloning. They see the technology as an effective, important way to produce higher-quality, healthier food. "We have to invest in technology to move forward," says Terry Etherton, head of the Dairy & Animal Science Dept. at Penn State University. This week, the Federation of Animal Science Societies took out an advertisement in one daily paper with a picture of a cloned cow grazing peacefully with her naturally bred calf. "What's wrong with this picture?" it asked. "Absolutely nothing." The clear divergence suggests that cloned foods will indeed be introduced to U.S. consumers in the near future. The FDA has said that it will consider only scientific arguments in its decision, while popular opinion and emotional appeals will carry no weight. While there are a handful of comments that make some science-based points against cloning, there is surprisingly little in the public comments that is likely to outweigh the FDA's inclination to proceed with cloned foods....
New Kind Of Cattle Promises To Be Healthier Historically, red meat has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer. But a new kind of cattle being bred in Texas promises to be healthier and improve health as well. The cattle is from Japan, from Akaushi cattle. The Texas Department of Agriculture says Texas ranchers were able to get some of these cattle due to a loophole in the trade act. Now that it's available for market, they say it is a healthy choice. New to the U.S. market is HeartBrand Meat. The Texas Department of Agriculture is hoping the health claims will beef up sales. “It prevents coronary heart disease as well as cancer and diabetes,” Catherine O’Gorman, with HeartBrand Meat, said. This cattle originally is said to be genetically geared to produce conjugated linoleic acid or CLA. That's what producers say will promote good health. But, so far, doctors say CLA has only been studied in mice....
Starving vultures kill cattle HUGE flocks of starving vultures have started attacking live animals in northern Spain, officials in the city of Burgos said this week. In one incident, about 100 vultures killed a cow and her newborn calf, a rancher from the Mena Valley said, according to the Spanish Government's office in Burgos, quoted by state news agency EFE. Ranchers have complained that vultures started attacking livestock several months ago when a feeding station set up in the Ordunte mountains was closed by the neighbouring province of Vizcaya. Vultures prefer to feed on the carcasses of dead animals, but carrion is scarce in modern Spain.