NEWS ROUNDUP


Anguished tales of property taken by state Years ago, Carla Ruff stored her grandmother's jewelry and a file of personal documents in a safe-deposit box at her bank in San Francisco's Noe Valley, thinking they would always be there when she wanted them. Not so. Without giving her notice or acting on evidence that she'd forgotten about her cache, the bank's staff, under the auspice of the state, determined the contents of her box to be unclaimed property. In July 1997, bank records show, the pearl necklace and diamond-encrusted pin, real estate and insurance documents as well as her birth certificate were all removed. The paperwork was shredded and thrown away. Her jewelry was auctioned off on eBay -- for a fraction of its $80,000 value. Ruff said she didn't know what had happened until January 2006, when an illness in the family sent her to the Bank of America branch looking for the deed to her house. Weeks later, the bank manager told Ruff that her property had been seized by the state under a law that requires the government to take control of lost or abandoned assets. The 58-year-old publishing consultant is one of a growing number of people who believe that the state of California and its agents have been too aggressive in the past decade in seeking out private property -- from bank and brokerage accounts to safe-deposit boxes and payouts from insurance policies -- that is thought to be lost or unclaimed. The law requires that banks and other financial institutions notify the state controller's office if property has been left unattended for more than three years. The law also requires the state to take the asset into trust to be held until the rightful owners claim it. But most of the time, no one claims the property, and when the assets have been converted to cash the state gets the benefit from the unclaimed property to pay for services such as health care and highway repairs....
California's air chief quits, citing meddling by governor's team The executive director of the California Air Resources Board resigned Monday, saying the governor's office had made it impossible for her to do her job by interfering with the implementation of the state's landmark global warming law. "I think they're trying to control it, and they don't have a very cogent vision for what's needed," said Catherine Witherspoon, who has managed the agency since 2003. Witherspoon's resignation comes days after the board's chairman, Robert Sawyer, a retired University of California, Berkeley engineering professor, was ousted by the governor. Witherspoon said she felt some of the governor's top aides were trying to keep information from him so he would not endorse more far-reaching action to put the global warming law into effect. The law, AB32, is the nation's first cap on greenhouse gas emissions and calls for a 25 percent reduction by 2020. The picture Witherspoon painted of a governor who was being misled and micromanaged by a staff that was trying to weaken the global warming law out of fear that it would harm businesses is at odds with the governor's carefully tended public image as an environmental champion. Echoing a complaint that both Democratic legislative leaders have made, Witherspoon said top Schwarzenegger aides were single-mindedly focused on using market-based mechanisms to implement the so-called Global Warming Solutions Act, even though other methods, particularly regulation, are needed to meet the law's tough standards....
Yellowstone National Park re-creates '30s photos Leonard M. Moe spent a good chunk of his summers in the 1930s lugging heavy camera equipment to some of the highest points in Yellowstone National Park and snapping sweeping panoramic photographs. The forestry student's 360-degree photos, posted in fire towers throughout the park, were part of an ambitious attempt to give a bird's-eye view of Yellowstone and other fire-prone areas of the West. This year, a small crew is returning to those same spots in Yellowstone, lugging the same kind of rare, antique camera and trying to capture the same photos. The images will offer a comparative look at the Yellowstone landscape and how it's been changed over the past 72 years by fires, tree-killing bark beetles, climate change and other factors....
State senator calls for Tahoe fire commission In the wake of the destructive Angora fire, which burned over 3,100 acres in the Lake Tahoe Basin and destroyed or severely damaged over 250 homes, California state Sen. Dave Cox, who represents the Truckee area, has called for the creation of a bistate blue-ribbon commission to study forest health in the basin. “We all recently toured this disaster area and saw first-hand the devastation this fire had on the community and this unique national treasure, Cox said in a letter sent to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons. “It is the public’s frustration with the lack of appropriate fuels management that has most demanding significant changes to how we manage these lands,” Cox said. “It is my contention that this proposed Blue Ribbon Commission explore in more detail how to better manage the public forests in this highly populated and highly regulated region that encompasses two different states.” Cox said a blue-ribbon commission should look for ways to reduce regulatory burdens characteristic of fire prevention in the Lake Tahoe Basin. “There is a very strong feeling among residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin, that over the years, all levels of government have failed to properly manage the forest lands and reduce the threats of catastrophic wildfires,” Cox wrote the governors. “Many feel that the requirements and regulations that have been put in place by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the U.S. Forest Service have made the process of creating defensible space both cumbersome and costly.”....
Organism ID'd That May Be Killing Sheep An organism that may have played a part in killing thousands of bighorn sheep in the West over the last five decades and in thwarting repopulation efforts has been isolated in a lab and found in struggling bighorn herds in the wild, biologists say. Research done at Washington State University on tissue taken from dying lambs captured in Hells Canyon -- a chasm that borders Idaho, Oregon and Washington -- isolated a type of bacteria called mycoplasma ovipneumoniae. Biologists say that could be the initial organism that attacks the sheep and works by inhibiting the ability of hairlike structures in airways to eliminate bacteria that lead to deadly pneumonia. Biologists have known that pneumonia often proves fatal to the wild sheep, but have been stumped for years as why so many bighorns are susceptible....
Off-road vehicles rev up controversy in public lands Off-road vehicles now pose the single biggest threat to America's public lands and represent a fast-growing law enforcement problem. That's the verdict of a new coalition of former public land managers and rangers, which has formed to bring attention to the problem. Understaffing, weak penalties, and lack of enforcement of trail restrictions, among other problems, have led to environmental degradation and an increasingly chaotic environment at many popular federal recreation areas that are overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of off-road-vehicles (ORVs), the coalition says. "These things are just crawling all over the place, unregulated, damaging the environment and wreaking havoc - there's no teeth in any law enforcement," says Jim Baca, a member of the Rangers for Responsible Recreation coalition and a former director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under the Clinton Administration. "Congress needs to look at this and make sure public land agencies are doing their job." BLM officials acknowledge the rising numbers of ORVs, but insist the problem is under control....
Bush Flips Off Spotted Owls How important are owls in the scheme of things? How important are forests? What do most Americans know about forests? The answer to the last question is that most Americans think that the majority of forests are managed by the Forest Service or the Park Service. Most Americans also think that those forests are protected from logging. Both answers are wrong. About 60 percent of the nation's forests are privately owned, and only a small percentage of forests on public land are protected from logging. In the Pacific Northwest, only about 15 percent of the original, native old-growth forest remains. Many people remember the battles over the last of big trees that took place in the 1980s and 90s, and assume that the treehuggers won and the old-growth forests are protected. They would be wrong about that too. In 1993, a few months after Bill Clinton took office, he initiated the Northwest Forest Plan. That plan settled a lawsuit over the northern spotted owl by setting aside habitat for the owl. But it did not protect all of the remaining old-growth trees and it did not protect anything permanently....
Restoring The Prairie In 1840, a young traveler named Eliza Steele ventured into Illinois and was dazzled by the tallgrass prairie near the city of Joliet. “A world of grass and flowers stretched around me,” she exulted, “rising and falling in gentle undulations, as if an enchanter had struck the ocean swell, and it was at rest forever.” Since then, farming and development have nearly obliterated this unique ecosystem. Yet in one of the most compelling environmental success stories of the past 30 years, the Midwest has experienced a prairie renaissance—the widespread restoration of prairies and related ecosystems, such as oak savannas, to ecological health. Molly Murray, outreach manager for the University of Wisconsin at Madison Arboretum, said these restoration efforts “have provided huge benefits for science. When we restore an ecosystem, we learn about it. We have learned about the role of fire in maintaining ecological health.” The roots of prairie restoration were planted right there at the university, when Aldo Leopold was appointed the first chair of game management in 1933. Leopold traveled throughout the state and observed firsthand the extensive soil erosion in Wisconsin. At the University of Wisconsin, he met a group of ecologists who planted prairie flora such as bluestem grasses, coneflowers and pasqueflowers on 70 acres of land that became known as the Curtis Prairie. A later site planted in the 1940s and 1950s was the 50-acre Greene Prairie, named after prairie expert Henry Greene. The group also conducted experiments with controlled fires, which restored nutrients to the soil, helped control weeds and stimulated the germination of grasses and forbs (flowering plants with non-woody stems). But the prairie restoration movement failed to catch on....
Judge dismisses counties' lawsuit A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit over land use in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, ruling Kane and Garfield counties can neither can claim ownership of roads that crisscross the monument's 1.8 million acres nor expect the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to do so for them. That's because the BLM doesn't have the power to make binding decisions on road ownership, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins ruled Friday. Further, the counties haven't yet proved ownership under required "quiet title" action, the judge said, rendering their lawsuit premature. The lawsuit filed last year affects the monument President Clinton created in 1996 under the federal Antiquities Act. It also has implications for the ongoing battle over mechanized access to wilderness-potential areas in Utah that has pitted environmental organizations seeking to conserve roadless areas against local officials who fear wilderness designation will harm their economies. The counties "tried to overturn all the protections limiting . . . off-highway vehicle travel [in the monument] based on unsupported allegations without proof there were a bunch of highways out there, somewhere," Earthjustice attorney Ted Zukoski said Monday. "The judge said they have to prove each and every road."....
Senator blocks BLM nominee over drilling Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., says he will block the confirmation of President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management until the administration gives Colorado more time to review a plan that allows gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. "They will not get a BLM director until we come to some resolution on this issue," a frustrated Salazar told reporters in a conference call Thursday. "I will not allow the Western Slope to become a sacrificial zone for the rest of the nation." Bush last month nominated James Caswell, a veteran public land official from Idaho, to head the Interior Department agency, which manages one-eighth of the land in the nation. Caswell's nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, and it can be held up by one senator with objections. Salazar's move is the latest attempt by Colorado Democrats to hinder a plan approved earlier this month that authorized up to 1,570 new natural gas wells on the Roan. The western Colorado landmark is rich in gas and oil shale reserves and beloved for its pockets of pristine backcountry and abundant wildlife....
State may slow Delta pumps again The state's top endangered species regulator suggested Monday that it might be necessary once again to slow down the Delta pumps that deliver drinking and irrigation water to much of California in order to protect an imperiled fish. Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick told reporters outside a congressional oversight hearing on the Delta that the water supply crisis might not be over this year, because a surprising number of fish continue to be killed at the pumps. "Is this time to ramp back down?" he asked, adding that he and other officials will discuss that issue today. Rep. George Miller said during the hearing that the ongoing Delta crisis -- in which fish populations are crashing and water supplies have been rendered less reliable -- suggests it might be time to shift water away from low-value crops. "Perhaps it is time to consider that not all water is equal in California," said Miller, D-Martinez. "There is water that is used in large quantities that brings relative little economic return to the state." Water could be shifted away from cotton and alfalfa farms in the San Joaquin Valley, for example, by changing subsidy policies or if the government decides not to renew contracts from the federally owned Central Valley Project....
Feds look at possible brucellosis buffer zone around park Creating a brucellosis buffer zone around Yellowstone National Park is a feasible idea, a federal disease control official said Monday, but making it happen won't be easy. Theresa Howes, spokeswoman for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said she and the federal agency's top veterinarian, Tom Clifford, met in June with Gov. Brian Schweitzer to discuss the possibility. "We were encouraged, all of us, by the thought that that could be a way for Montana to go," Howes said. Schweitzer has for more than two years pushed the idea of a buffer or "hot zone" in the southern reaches of Park, Gallatin and Madison counties. All cattle entering or leaving the zone would be tested for brucellosis, a disease found in May in a Bridger herd, the first Montana outbreak since 1985. The herd had links to a Paradise Valley herd, which has since tested disease free. Schweitzer said last week the disease appears to have been transmitted from elk. He also said it is likely that more cases will be found, sooner or later....
Livestock head: Elk may be brucellosis culprit The director of the state Livestock Department says preliminary findings are pointing to elk as the possible source of a brucellosis outbreak at a Bridger ranch this spring. Christian Mackay told the Environmental Quality Council today the possibility isn't definitive and quote "may never be definitive." A spokesman for the U-S Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wouldn't confirm the possibility. Larry Cooper says the agency is still investigating. Brucellosis causes pregnant cows to abort their calves. It was detected at a Bridger ranch in May, and although subsequent testing has turned up negative the state could lose its brucellosis-free status if another case turns up in the next two years....
Earliest-known Evidence of Peanut, Cotton and Squash Farming Found Anthropologists working on the slopes of the Andes in northern Peru have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming dating back 5,000 to 9,000 years. Their findings provide long-sought-after evidence that some of the early development of agriculture in the New World took place at farming settlements in the Andes. The discovery was published in the June 29 issue of Science. The research team made their discovery in the Ñanchoc Valley, which is approximately 500 meters above sea level on the lower western slopes of the Andes in northern Peru. “We believe the development of agriculture by the Ñanchoc people served as a catalyst for cultural and social changes that eventually led to intensified agriculture, institutionalized political power and new towns in the Andean highlands and along the coast 4,000 to 5,500 years ago,” Tom D. Dillehay, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University and lead author on the publication, said. “Our new findings indicate that agriculture played a broader role in these sweeping developments than was previously understood.”....
It's All Trew: Finding ways to keep warm creative process for settlers There are hundreds of recorded accounts telling how early settlers gathered buffalo and cow chips from the treeless prairie to burn to campfires, fireplaces and stoves. Artist have depicted mothers and children pushing wheelbarrows and dragging wash tubs to haul the hot-burning fuel to their prairie homesteads. Almost no accounts exist telling of how settlers also burned "hay cats" for fuel. A hay cat is a small bundle of rough grass about two inches in diameter, as long as the grass is cut, held together by wrapping grass stems around the bundle and tying. The accounts I have found seem to be more by Scandinavian families than by other nationalities. Though any stove or fireplace could be fueled by hay cats, the "earth or sod" stove used the fuel best. The earth stove was merely a mud-block, squarish oven built in the center of a soddy or dugout, with a door in one end and a flue or chimney in the other end. Once the walls, floor and top of the crude furnace became warm, the structure around remained warm enough for survival. When the firewood and cow chips played out, the settlers cut wagon loads of the coarse grass growing around or in playa lakes. When night came, the entire family including small children, sat around tying hay cats and storing them nearby in the home. The size of the hay cats varied as smaller hands made smaller hay cats....