NEWS ROUNDUP

Endangered wolf program remains a complex, volatile issue On a file cabinet outside Catron County Manager Bill Aymar's office sits a stuffed animal: a sheep in wolf's clothing, armed with a machine gun. Aymar calls it his "answer to the wolf problem." The problem, in the view of southwestern New Mexico ranchers, is a program that began in 1998 to reintroduce endangered Mexican gray wolves into their historic range in Arizona and New Mexico, where they'd been exterminated at the behest of the livestock industry decades ago. Environmentalists contend the problem isn't the wolves _ but the ranchers who refuse to accept the reintroduction program. Almost from the program's start, wolves killed cattle. Rancher and Catron County Commissioner Hugh B. McKeen says it's been too much for a way of life already stressed by other predators and increasing rules on federal lands. "It's a disaster," says McKeen, who runs 108 head on 11 square miles of largely public land near the village of Alma. He's lost one cow to wolves, but says neighbors have lost many more. "It's not just the cattle they eat. But it's the cattle they scatter and run through fences."....
Surge in Wild Animal Attacks on Suburban Children Bears are no longer just going through the trash, they are breaking and entering. And coyotes are no longer contained to the wily domain of Saturday morning cartoons, they are trotting through suburban neighborhoods in increasing numbers. A recent spate of black bear home invasions and attacks by coyotes and foxes on adults and children in the state of New Jersey sheds light on the growing nationwide problem of human and wildlife encounters. As humans continue to encroach and build homes and businesses in suburban and rural areas once solely inhabited by wildlife, experts warn that the problem may worsen. In New Jersey, a coyote bit a 22-month-old boy in his grandparents' backyard in April. In May, a coyote attacked a 5-year-old boy playing in a yard near his Middletown home. And last week, Putnam County officials say a Patterson woman was attacked by a fox in her backyard. Meanwhile, the state's black bear population has skyrocketed after years of dwindling numbers. Last week, police in North Jersey shot and killed a bear in a tree that had broken into a house earlier in the day....hat tip to Wolves Gone Wild
Dems Plan to 'Green' the Capitol The U.S. House of Representatives complex generated more "greenhouse gas" last year than 17,000 cars, Democratic leaders said Thursday, declaring that Congress must be more environmentally friendly before members can expect Americans in general to back "sweeping" measures contained in new energy bills. Unveiling what party leaders are calling a "Green the Capitol" initiative, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told a press conference on the steps of the building: "The Capitol will not only be a shining example of democracy, but of our commitment to the future. Our work today is to green the Capitol on behalf of the future. "We believed that we had to get our own house in order before we launched a sweeping global warming and energy independence agenda for the rest of the nation," she said. Among the initiative's goals is to operate the House of Representatives in a "carbon-neutral manner" by January 2009. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the greenhouse gas often blamed for global warming. To reduce the amount of greenhouse gas produced, the Capitol will purchase electricity generated from renewable sources such as solar power, switch from using coal, oil and natural gas at the Capitol Power Plant to solely using natural gas, and purchase carbon "offsets" for the remaining emissions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added that Congress would purchase more flexible-fuel vehicles and build a biofuel station at the Capitol....Is this the same Nancy Pelosi who demanded a huge military aircraft to ferry her and her family back and forth from D.C. to California?
Smothering land rights with an energy bill? Now, global warming is being used as an excuse to further expand government's power to control the use of land. A part of the energy bill now under consideration includes H.R. 2337, which may be cited as the "Global Warming Wildlife Survival Act." What kind of arrogance does it take to think Congress can write a law that will make any difference at all to any global warming that may take place or to the survival of wildlife? Now, despite all this indisputable history, Congress thinks it can write legislation that will affect global warming (or cooling, as the case may be) and help wildlife survive. The legislation now proposed will do neither. What it will do is give the various agencies of government still another excuse to control the use of land. Under the Endangered Species Act, government at least has to pretend that some bug or weed is endangered before restricting the use of land. Under the Clean Water Act, the government at least has to pretend the land may, at some point, have been a mud puddle. Under the pending legislation, a government agency need only suggest that restricting land use will help wildlife survive the impact of global warming. Who can prove them wrong – or right? This absurdity is being discussed in the context of America's energy policy. What should be discussed is how to produce more energy from the known domestic petroleum reserves; how to remove some of the obstacles that prevent building new refineries; how to speed up the licensing process for nuclear energy plants; how to improve the clean coal technology to take advantage of our massive coal reserves....
Mayors make environmental moves Cities in 36 states are going "green," mainly by running cars on alternative fuel and installing energy-efficient streetlights and traffic signals, says a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors out today. Less than half, though, have taken tougher steps to require energy-efficient homes and businesses. The survey, compiling the responses of 134 cities, is the first snapshot of how cities are trying to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to offset global warming. The survey found: •Three-quarters of the cities are replacing vehicles with hybrids or using biofuels such as ethanol. San Francisco runs 40% of its fleet on biodiesel and in September will recycle waste oils from restaurants into biodiesel for city vehicles. •Six in 10 require that new city government buildings be energy efficient, and four in 10 require developers to build green. Santa Cruz, Calif., mandates that new construction be energy efficient. •64% use renewable energy such as solar, wind or gases released in landfills to meet some of their energy needs. Albuquerque captures methane from decomposing garbage to power machines that clean water under a landfill....
N.M. court rules in AZ ranchers' dispute over grazing permit Water rights in New Mexico provide ranchers with no legal entitlement for cattle to forage on adjacent lands, the state Supreme Court ruled in a setback to ranchers seeking compensation for the loss of a federal grazing permit. The unanimous decision by state's highest court came in a long-simmering legal dispute in southwestern New Mexico where ranchers claimed a property right on a grazing allotment in the Gila National Forest. Similar disputes over public lands and private property rights have surfaced throughout the West. The justices, in a ruling issued Thursday, concluded that "the case law and statutes of this state, as well as customary practice, do not support holding that a right to forage is within the scope of a water right or right of way for enjoyment of a water right." According to the court, "the Walkers assert their vested water right, historically used to water cattle, entitled their predecessors in interest and now entitles them, to the implicit use of the surrounding land as forage for that livestock." However, the justices rejected the Walkers' claim. "The self-evident fact that grazing will occur in areas adjacent to stock water facilities does not translate into a legally enforceable right to graze by virtue of a stock watering right," the court said in an opinion written by Justice Richard Bosson. The court also concluded that "the laws of New Mexico do not support the Walkers' claims to a forage right on federal lands implicit in their right of way for the maintenance and enjoyment of a vested water right."....
Mesquite eradication restores native grassland On a ranch east of Carlsbad where a year ago mesquite bushes choked the landscape, natural grasses wave gently in the breeze. A desert turtle pokes his head out of his shell and wonders why the humans invading his space are speaking with excitement in their voices. For city-slickers, getting excited over rangeland grasses may seem a little over the top. But for the handful of range conservationist and wildlife biologists from the Bureau of Land Management Carlsbad Field Office, it is a big deal — they are accomplishing their mission under the Healthy Land Initiative and funding from the federal Environmental Quality Improvement Program. Although the BLM is the lead agency, it actually takes a small army to successfully wage war against the mesquite bush that is densely spread across state, federal and private lands in Eddy County....
Retirees find new roles with BLM
Five former Bureau of Land Management employees consider themselves in retiree heaven and loving every minute of it. When the BLM came knocking on their door to see if they would be interested in providing their expertise and a helping hand with the agency's mesquite eradication program, the retirees happily stepped up to the plate. Although they are paid for their services through the USDA's Environmental Quality Improvement program, truth be told, most of them would have volunteered with or without pay. Collectively, Howard Gebel, Mack Wilemon, Gerald Orr, Roy Stovall and Larry La Plant have 130 years of experience in fields ranging from wildlife biology to range improvement, and their experience has been welcomed by the younger generation of BLM professionals who are building on what the retirees started....
State officials update Montana ranchers on wolf delisting, management Ranchers south of Interstate 90 can legally protect their livestock from the wolf's wrath, while ranchers north of the interstate cannot, according to the 10J rule on wolf management. “The wolves north of the river are fully endangered and ranchers cannot shoot them if they are killing livestock,” explained Kraig Glazier of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspec-tion Service during the Montana Cattlemen's Association mid-year meeting on the Sakalkho Ranch near Hamilton, Mont. “South of the river, they can shoot the wolves if they are harassing the livestock because they are considered an experimental population, whereas, those north of the river are considered an existing population.” It's a matter of legal descriptions, which is necessary to take wolves off the endangered species list, he added, and “biologically, wolves are fully recovered.” The wolf population is more than recovered - it is growing, according to Glazier, who works on behalf of the Montana Department of Livestock to supervise the western region of wolf management....
Lake Tahoe fire destroys at least 165 buildings A wind-whipped wildfire destroyed at least 165 homes and other structures and scorched close to 2,000 acres just southwest of Lake Tahoe on Sunday, fire officials said. El Dorado County Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin House said the fire is less than 5 percent contained, but no injuries or deaths have been reported. The cause of the fire is still unknown. “This thing is raging out of control, and there’s no estimate as to when that may change,” House said. House said there are 500 more homes in the fire’s path, and the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors has issued a declaration of emergency. Also, firefighters are protecting South Tahoe High School, which is threatened because it is located downhill from the site of the fire....
Logging town to loggers: Not in our backyard In the shadow of towering Douglas firs, two deer stop and stare at a small group of humans wandering toward them. Ninety years ago, deer like these had no place to hide. All of Heybrook Ridge was bare, and the town in the valley below was thriving. Few complained back then about the denuded hillside. Logging and the carving of granite blocks out of nearby mountains put Index on the map. The straight, fine-grained timber was the best on the market. The granite was also choice -- used to build the steps of the state Capitol. But last year, when the logging company WB Foresters proposed another clearcut on the ridge, town folk rallied against the idea. "I was stunned," said Debbie Buse, who helps her father run the company. "Obviously, the demographics of the town have changed significantly. I figured there would still be old-timers." Faced with petitions, Buse and her father decided to work with the town and gave the objectors one year -- a deadline of June 8, 2008 -- to raise $1.3 million. That's what it'll cost to buy the 95 acres that serve as a deep-green backdrop to this Snohomish County town of 150 people....
Rainbow Family to Gather in Ark. Members of the Rainbow Family, whose annual gathering of thousands of people has worried the Forest Service in the past, are setting up camp in the Ozark National Forest this year. The mix of eccentrics, young people and hippie types from around the country has been meeting for decades each year in a national forest somewhere in the U.S. to pray for peace and to celebrate love. Such a large group can harm forests, so the Forest Service has developed a team to "manage the impacts of Rainbow Family national gatherings." Rainbow Family members say they always leave some members behind after the gathering to reseed damaged areas, cover all fire pits and remove bridges created over streams....
Insect song bothers some Been sleeping in earplugs recently? Or been sleeping at all, for that matter? Some in Central Texas have been bleary-eyed in recent days and might not get a full night’s sleep for a few weeks, predicted a Texas Parks & Wildlife entomologist tracking this summer’s exploding population of the Central Texas Leaf Katydid. Spawned by abundant spring rains, the insects also known as “longhorn grasshoppers” have appeared in great numbers in counties south of Hays; however, TPWD Invertebrate Biologist Mike Quinn said Wimberley has also experienced the outbreak. “People tell me they can’t sleep at night, or they’re having to wear earplugs,” Quinn said. “They ask me ‘what’s going on?’” Though katydids are present each year, Quinn said this season’s outbreak is atypical. “I don’t think it’s cyclical” in the sense that some locusts are. He described the phenomenon as more infrequent or periodic. “I don’t foresee it happening in the same location anytime in the near future.” Most summer nights hereabouts are punctuated with the katydid’s song — short and buzzy and, Quinn says, repeated every five to six seconds. However, “when katydid populations reach levels with multiple individuals in every tree branch, they sing day and night in an unbelievably raucous chorus that forms a continuous pulsating whine.”....
New Mexico tops in U.S. pecan production New Mexico's pecan farmers have reason to go nuts: For the first time, the state ranks as the No. 1 producer of pecans in the country, beating out Georgia and Texas, who typically rank at the top but had to battle erratic weather last year. New Mexico produced about 46 million pounds of pecans in 2006. Georgia came in at 40 million pounds followed by Texas with 36 million pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 70 percent of all pecans produced in the state are grown in the Mesilla Valley along the Rio Grande corridor in the southern part of the state, where the river provides essential irrigation water, said Richard Heerema, extension pecan specialist with New Mexico State University. Pecan farming in New Mexico began in the early 1930s when the Stahmann family started a commercial-scale orchard in the Mesilla Valley desert. The industry flourished, and the Stahmann family now lays claim to the largest pecan orchard in the world and led the way for future pecan farmers in the West, Arnold said. New Mexico trees produce more pecans per acre than other trees and acreage in the Mesilla Valley has grown more than 500 percent since the 1970s, Heerema said....
Aversion therapy steers sheep away from vines Wanted: Hungry sheep, a year old, with limited dining experience, otherwise healthy. Work in the state's most breathtaking countryside. Here in the rolling pastures of Mendocino County, several dozen sheep are eating their way into agriculture acclaim. An experiment among vineyards on a university ranch has pretty much proved that sheep can be trained as four-footed professional eaters, who bypass the tender shoots of grapevines overhead for the pesky weeds sprouting underneath. "Sheep are really good at what they do, and what they do is eat," said Morgan Doran, a farm adviser with the University of California. These trained animal lawn mowers could reduce labor costs, provide an alternative to pesticides and work diligently even in driving spring rains, Doran said....
Brand Identity It was a scene that could have happened 150 years ago in the Old West. Cowboys on horses roped the hind legs of running calves for the annual spring ritual of branding. But the scene happened last week in a corral northwest of Cortez as Zane Odell branded his reverse Z bar O on calves in preparation for taking them to summer pasture in the mountains near Rico. The calves also were dehorned, immunized and castrated. Hernando Cortez introduced branding from Spain to the New World in 1541, when he used his brand of three crosses, and the custom spread as the cattle industry grew in the West. In Colorado, brands have been registered with the Brand Inspection Division of the State Board of Livestock Inspection since about 1865, and no duplicates are allowed. There are a few of the very old brands that are duplicated, because they were already in existence in different parts of the state before registration was required, local brand inspector Joel Stevenson said. More than 37,000 brands are registered in Colorado for cattle, horses, mules, burros, sheep, elk and fallow deer. Colorado allows brands in any one of six common locations — either right or left side, and on the shoulder, rib or hip. Since hides have a value once the animal is butchered, many ranchers use shoulder and hip brands to cause less hide damage than rib brands....
Real Cowboys Lane Oles, 8, skewered some freshly extracted calf fries and roasted them over the fire that heated the brand used to mark the calf they came from. The pre-lunch delicacy was his reward for helping the adults round up calves on Bill Weems' ranch, brand and medicate them and castrate the bulls. "Those calf fries are good," he said after taking a bite. "I helped with the calf fries and then I ate some." Lane and his 10-year-old brother, Dee, are following in their father's footsteps, prints made by a pair of cowboy boots with the clink of spurs. The sons of Jim Oles, dressed in brown vests, boots, spurs and straw cowboy hats, are more than wannabe cowboys. They're the real deal, the next generation of modern-day cowboys, keeping alive the Old West traditions that made the Texas Panhandle what it is today. The tools have changed, but the methods of raising cattle have remained consistent since the early days of ranching and cattle drives of the mid- to late-1800s. The whole process is a family affair with neighbors helping neighbors. "There's less stress on us and the cattle when there's plenty of help and people know what to do. We all help each other," Oles said....