NEWS ROUNDUP

Google and Intel pledge to go green Google and Intel are leading an initiative backed by several big technology companies to reduce the amount of power wasted by personal computers. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative aims to make computers 50 per cent more power efficient by 2010. The companies say that achieving this goal would save an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to that released by 11 million cars in a year. The commitment, which is supported by Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft, is part of a larger campaign to educate consumers about technology industry-related carbon dioxide emissions, which according to Gartner, the technology analysts, account for 2 per cent of the global total – a percentage on par with aviation. "We aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions in an amount equal to shutting down 20 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants," Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, said. Urs Holzle, senior vice president of operations at Google, said: "Today, the average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power and the average server wastes one-third of its power." The plan would save an estimated $5.5 billion in energy costs and would, its proponents say, increase the cost of a computer by only about $30 per unit. Reduced running costs would pay for the extra outlay within a couple of years, they say....
Forest Service to sell land only to select group of ranchers In a deal to appease up to 40 western North Dakota ranchers, the U.S. Forest Service quietly agreed to sell them 5,200 acres to offset the amount of land the agency gained from its purchase of a historic Badlands ranch. Real estate agents question whether it's legal, saying the sale should be open to everyone. The decision to sell federal land in Billings County - and only to ranchers there - is not the same pitch the Forest Service made when it sought to buy the 5,200-acre site adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch site, where the former president ranched more than a century ago. The Forest Service had said it would balance the $5.3 million acquisition of the historic Blacktail Creek Ranch by selling 5,200 acres of the 1.2 million acres it owns throughout the state. erry Clement, owner of West Plains Realty in Dickinson, said selling just to Billings County ranchers could be illegal. "It doesn't sound like legally they can do that - I would think that they would have to open it up for everybody because it is public land," he said....
Army mum on how many people are willing to sell for training site The Army says it has been contacted by several people willing to sell land for a controversial expansion of a southeastern Colorado training site, but officials won't say how many have stepped up or how much land they offered. The Army wants to nearly triple the size of the Pinon Canyon maneuver site, from 368 square miles to more than 1,000 square miles, saying the land is needed to accommodate expected growth at Fort Carson and changing training needs. Opponents, including some ranchers, worry the Army will use eminent domain to force landowners to sell. The Army told Sen. Wayne Allard last week it had found at least some willing sellers and did not expect it would have to force any transactions. Army spokeswoman Mary Ann Hodges declined to release any details about the willing sellers. The Army "has been informally contacted by several potential willing sellers; however, it is too early in the acquisition process to discuss specific land owners or acreage," she said in an e-mail to The Associated Press this week. Hodges said the Army Corps of Engineers will formally identify and contact willing sellers as the process unfolds, but she said those sellers would not be publicly identified....
Editorial - Pinon Canyon details? THE ARMY has been its own worst enemy from a public relations standpoint in the delays and incompleteness of information released so far about Fort Carson expansion plans for Pinon Canyon. We are keeping an open mind on the actual merits of whether the Army should or should not proceed with the plan to enlarge the existing 238,000-acre Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad. On the one hand, we recognize the importance for our national security of training troops who put their lives on the line in defense of the United States around the world. On the other hand, we empathize with the residents of Southeastern Colorado who could be adversely affected by the expansion. Until just recently, we've known only in broad terms that the Army intends to add more than 400,000 acres that eventually would expand the Pinon Canyon site to a total of more than 650,000 acres. Only now, 18 months into the process, has the Army released what purports to be an official map of the proposed boundaries. In relation to the existing site, the three expansion areas involve 103,000 acres to the south, 305,000 acres to the west and 5,400 acres on the northern tip of the current training site. The ranchers involved and the public in and around Trinidad and other affected communities have a right to know even more details. This is especially true of private property owners, some of whose families homesteaded the area generations ago. They deserve to know if their farms, ranches and homes are targeted for expansion and how many years it might take....
Landowners miffed about Army's Pinon Canyon plan If there are ranchers in southeast Colorado ready and willing to sell their land to the Army for its expanded Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, they aren’t mentioning it to their neighbors. More than 100 landowners or their representatives met tonight to show their opposition to the Army’s plan to acquire 408,000 acres straddling U.S. 350 between Trinidad and La Junta. Many area ranchers were told last week there are enough "willing sellers" to expand the Army training site without forcing involuntary sales. That was news to Tony Hass. "I’ve contacted about 70 people in the last week and I haven’t run into one of these willing sellers yet," said Hass, owner of the 14,000-acre Walkin’ Y Ranch near Thatcher. "The Army hasn’t contacted anyone I know or made any offers." Hass organized toinght's meeting at the peach-colored Hoehne Community Center following a boisterous and often uncivil public hearing in nearby Trinidad on June 7. ...
Rancher shoots wolf in cattle herd A Bitterroot Valley rancher who lost several calves to wolves spent the night in his car to guard his herd and shot a wolf as it moved among his cattle. "There were all these black shapes, cows running everywhere," said Ed Cummings, who was awakened at 4:30 a.m. on June 5 by his dog's growling. "And right in the middle of them, just sort of trotting around, is this wolf." Cummings lost his shoe while trying to get out of the car, keep an eye on the wolf and grab the rifle he'd borrowed. "I didn't make a very good shot, but I hit it," he said Monday. Federal officials shot another wolf the next day. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks issued Cummings a permit to kill two more wolves, although he does not need permission to shoot those attacking, chasing or harassing his livestock. Vivaca Crowser, information officer for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said other cows on Cummings' property were killed June 6 and 7. Officials with the federal Wildlife Services agency attributed the deaths to wolves. Meanwhile, about 30 miles southwest of Dillon, Wildlife Services officials have confirmed wolves killed six sheep Friday and Saturday....
Wolves hot topic at Draper The number of wolves in Wyoming has grown 20 percent annually since wolf reintroduction 12 years ago. “This year it (wolf numbers) grew a little more rapidly,” wolf project leader Mike Jimenez of Jackson said June 5 during a talk at the Draper Museum of Natural History. The impact of wolves on big game and livestock is a major issue. They are “hunters of opportunity” and tend to key in on one group. “They kill what's available and then what's vulnerable,” Jimenez said. Wolves follow elk herds to low elevations in the winter. As the elk move back to higher elevations in the spring ranchers move in their livestock. But rather than follow the elk herds back to the high country, wolves stay low and hunt the livestock, he explained. If a wolf pack is threatening or killing cows, Game and Fish agents are authorized to kill wolves. “If you look at what's really responsible for wolf mortality, it's us as an agency,” Jimenez said. “We do kill wolves that cause problems.” Every year G&F officials kill 15 percent of Wyoming's wolf population, most of which are problem animals. The only time a civilian can legally kill a wolf is when the observe a wolf “in the act” of killing livestock. “Wolves do kill livestock,” Jimenez said. “It's a serious concern.”....
The Big Timber Race: A New Approach to Paddling As Big Timber Creek crashes down the eastern flank of the Crazy Mountains, water spurts through narrow slots and sprays across shallow, steep rock chutes before gushing over lofty waterfalls into roiling, foamy pools. The quintessential mountain creek provides challenging and unique kayaking, and a recent race there drew in 40 boaters from locales as far away as Colorado and Canada. With an average elevation drop of 720 feet per mile, the Big Timber Race — according to organizers — is the steepest kayaking race in the world. The Headwaters Paddling Association (HPA) organized the inaugural race and took a new grassroots approach to the event. Much of the perimeter of the Crazy Mountains is characterized by a checkerboard ownership of private and National Forest land. Concerned about kayakers’ reputations and access to the creek, the HPA opened a dialogue with the landowners and modeled the Big Timber Race as both a celebration of the creek and an awareness raiser to build a respectful relationship between the landowners and the kayaking community....
Family Forestry There is a crisis brewing in America’s vast forest lands, but it has little to do with the health of the woods: the acreage is essentially the same as it was a century ago, and there is over 30 percent more wood volume per acre than in 1952. At stake are large tracts of private forest that are at risk of falling into mismanagement, subdivision or being sold for development. “It’s a ticking time bomb” said Brett J. Butler, a research forester with the United States Forest Service Family Forest Research Center in Amherst, Mass. He says the situation could jeopardize things like the wood used to build homes, jobs, and clean water and fresh air. Nearly 60 percent of the nation’s forests are privately owned, the majority by families and individuals and most of these owners are 55 or older. A huge swath of forest land is about to change hands as aging landowners pass the land to heirs or buyers. “Without a doubt, it is the largest intergenerational transfer of forest land in our nation’s history,” said Al Sample, president of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, a nonprofit environmental policy research organization, “and we are not ready for it.”....
Major increase in fuel standards in the works The Senate is weighing the first major increase in federal fuel economy standards since Congress first responded to the oil crisis of the 1970s, part of a new energy bill that Democratic leaders hope to pass in the next few weeks. The measure would raise fleetwide fuel economy standards by 35 miles per gallon by 2020, up from the 25 miles per gallon average now for cars and trucks. The standards would rise an additional 4 percent every year until 2030. But lawmakers must first overcome stiff resistance from U.S. automakers, who claim the new standards are impossible to meet and could cripple an already ailing industry. Michigan lawmakers plan to offer amendments to weaken or kill the new fuel efficiency standards. The bill also would require U.S. drivers to use more than five times as much renewable biofuels as they do today -- 36 billion gallons annually by 2022. The bill would be a boon to Midwest corn farmers, but it also requires that 60 percent of the new biofuels be made from cellulosic materials like switchgrass and agricultural waste. The measure would increase energy efficiency standards for dishwashers, refrigerators and other appliances, and set "green building" standards for all new federal buildings. Lawmakers also plan to make price-gouging by oil companies a federal offense. The Senate will consider a plan by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, that would require utilities to get at least 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources....
Spotted owl lands targeted The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to shrink critical habitat for the northern spotted owl by 1.6 million acres across its range in Washington, Oregon and California. The service says the proposed rule change, announced Tuesday, reflects a "more current assessment" of the owl's habitat needs across the three states and an ability to map more precisely than in the past the areas where the best owl habitat is located. The rule drops critical habitat designation for some high-elevation forests and for land at Fort Lewis, where no owls have been found. It reduces protection for owls on Bureau of Land Management forests in western Oregon. It adds land elsewhere, reducing the total acreage protected from 6.9 million acres to 5.3 million acres. The proposal comes six weeks after the agency released a draft recovery plan for the owl that downplays the impact of logging on the species' continued survival. The recovery plan identifies competition from the larger and more aggressive barred owl as the greatest threat to the spotted owl's recovery....
Wyoming man injured by Grand Teton grizzly A grizzly bear attacked a man today, causing moderate injuries, after the man apparently surprised a female bear and three cubs feeding on an elk carcass. Dennis VanDenbos, 54, of Lander, was walking alone near the Jackson Lake Lodge at about 6 a.m. when he noticed the sow and her cubs within 10 feet of him, according to park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs. After yelling at the bears in an attempt to frighten them off, VanDenbos dropped down on his stomach as one of the bears attacked him. Shouts from a nearby witness drove the bear away. VanDenbos suffered puncture wounds and lacerations on his backside and was taken to St. John's Medical Center in Jackson for treatment, according to the park service. Skaggs said the injuries "were not life-threatening." Park officials said they planned to take no action against the bear. Skaggs said VanDenbos "just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and startled a bear that was on a kill."....
A world without oil Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit. BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry. However, scientists led by the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, say that global production of oil is set to peak in the next four years before entering a steepening decline which will have massive consequences for the world economy and the way that we live our lives. According to "peak oil" theory our consumption of oil will catch, then outstrip our discovery of new reserves and we will begin to deplete known reserves. Colin Campbell, the head of the depletion centre, said: "It's quite a simple theory and one that any beer drinker understands. The glass starts full and ends empty and the faster you drink it the quicker it's gone."....
Burros are reinvading Big Bear Wild burros have been spotted in Big Bear’s residential neighborhoods and along roads and highways. Several burros have been injured and killed along Highway 38. Burros returning to urban areas is dangerous for the animals and people. Burros were rounded up and adopted out in the late 1990s for their protection. Drought conditions are suspected for bringing the animals back to town. How burros originally made their way to Big Bear Valley isn’t exactly known. Some say the animals escaped from movie shoots in the 1900s. The burros could have escaped from mining operations or been released from the fox farms. However, folks who grew up in the fox farm era in the Valley say that burro meat was a diet staple for foxes and humans....
Judge tosses '81 law protecting right to farm A Panhandle judge has thrown out a 1981 state law designed to protect agricultural interests, from giant cattle feedyards to chicken coops, against nuisance lawsuits from neighbors upset about dust, smell or other unpleasantness. The Texas Right to Farm Act was among several similar measures enacted across the country to prevent lawsuits being brought by suburban newcomers against existing facilities. It has remained in place for more than a quarter-century, and the Texas Supreme Court enforced it in a lawsuit out of McCulloch County in 2003. The act went into limbo a week ago when state District Judge David Gleason in Randall County ruled in favor of a northern Panhandle family who claim dust and fecal matter from a nearby feedlot have rendered their century-old homestead in Hansford County uninhabitable. The owners of the feedlot are considering an appeal. "This has the potential of being a huge issue for agriculture," said Joe Maley, director of organization for the Texas Farm Bureau. Maley said he learned only Wednesday of the two-page summary judgment by Gleason....
New EWG Web site lists 'shielded' payment recipients The Environmental Working Group has unveiled a new Web site that purports to reveal the names of at least 350,000 persons who previously have not been identified as recipients of federal farm subsidies. The EWG, which has listed the names of thousands of other farmers and landowners and their payments on the Internet in recent years, says it hopes the new site will lead Congress to enact “broad reforms” of federal farm programs as it begins to write the 2007 farm bill. It says the 350,000 names have been the recipients of almost a third of the $34.75 billion in farm program benefits paid to farmers between 2003 and 2005. The EWG first went public with its lists of farm payment recipients in November 2001. In a press release distributed on the new Web site, EWG indicated it will continue its propaganda campaign against payments to the 20 percent of U.S. farmers who produce 70 to 80 percent of the nation’s row crop commodities. Until now, Cook said, the 350,000 new names have benefited from layers of partnerships, joint ventures, limited liability corporations, cooperatives and other business structures. The new site was developed from previously unpublished USDA records that were compiled under a provision of the 2002 farm bill....