NEWS ROUNDUP

Back to drawing board on Pinon Canyon Facing a possible cut-off in funding for the project, Army Secretary Pete Geren announced the Army is "going back to the drawing board" on the planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in order to consider ideas on how to help the regional economy as the Army goes ahead with its effort to acquire the 414,000 acres it wants to add to the training site northeast of Trinidad. In a letter to Colorado Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard dated Thursday, Geren repeated the Army's often-stated goal of acquiring land from "willing sellers," but also said it intends to look at ways to offer some economic "enhancements" to the region. "Our intent is to fully consider potential economic enhancements to local communities, with the goal of accomplishing the acquisition of the necessary property from willing sellers," Geren's letter said. "I don't see anything knew here for us," Lon Robertson, a rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. "The Army says they're willing to talk about economic development. But putting troops down here would still mean we lose our land and agriculture would be finished down here."....The Pentagon has over 29 million acres of U.S. landholdings, with 52% of those controlled by the Army. It's hard for me to believe they just have to have another 400,000 plus acres to train troops.
Were American Indians Really Environmentalists? The traditional story is familiar to American schoolchildren: the American Indians possessed a profound spiritual kinship with nature, and were unusually solicitous of environmental welfare. In his 1992 book Earth in the Balance, then-Senator Al Gore cited a nineteenth-century speech from Chief Seattle, patriarch of the Duwamish and Suquamish Indians of Puget Sound, as evidence of the Indians' concern for nature. This speech, which speaks of absolutely everything in the natural world, including every last insect and pine needle, as being sacred to Seattle and his people, has been made to bear an unusually heavy share of the burden in depicting the American Indians as the first environmentalists. The trouble for Gore is that the version of the speech he cites is a fabrication, drawn up in the early 1970s by screenwriter Ted Perry. (Perry, to his credit, has tried without success to let people know that he made up the speech.) Still, it was influential enough to become the basis for Brother Eagle, Sister Sky, a children's book that reached number five on the New York Times bestseller list in 1992....
Why Milk Costs More Than Gas The other day milk was selling in a New England supermarket at $4.79 a gallon. Down the street, regular gasoline was going for about $3.04 a gallon. One of the factors driving up the cost of milk is the ethanol stampede. Ethanol, as we all have been taught to believe by now, will bring us "energy independence" and lessen global warming with no change in the way we live--unless we happen to be a small child in a household with a limited budget. American ethanol is made from corn, and the more corn we use to feed our cars, the more expensive is the corn left over for our livestock. Ergo, "No Milk Today." If ethanol we must have, we could import it from Brazil, where they can make it cheaper from sugar cane than Americans can make it from corn. But Brazilian ethanol, thanks to the agribusiness lobby and a 54-cent-per-gallon import tariff, is kept out of the country. Politicians of both parties, mad for winning elections in corn-growing Iowa, do not mention the cheaper Brazilian stuff....
Eating beef ' is less green than driving' Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours, it was claimed yesterday. Japanese scientists used a range of data to calculate the environmental impact of a single purchase of beef. Taking into account all the processes involved, they said, four average sized steaks generated greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 80.25lb of carbon dioxide. This also consumed 169 megajoules of energy. That means that 2.2lb of beef is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions which have the same effect as the carbon dioxide released by an ordinary car travelling at 50 miles per hour for 155 miles, a journey lasting three hours. The amount of energy consumed would light a 100-watt bulb for 20 days. Most of the greenhouse gas emissions are in the form of methane released from the animals' digestive systems, New Scientist magazine reported....
Park whittles at roving elks' willow feast Estes Park - In the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park, a slice of wild country famed for its natural state, stands a jarring discrepancy: a giant fence. The 32-acre enclosure in the middle of Horseshoe Park, an area denuded by a flood 25 years ago this week, ironically fits in with the national park's mission to restore natural conditions, said Jeff Connor, a park natural-resources specialist. "We gave it an opportunity to restore on its own, and it didn't happen," he said. The fence is intended to protect willows and other plants from the voracious appetite of the park's elk herd, allowing the landscape to revert back to the mountain wetland that existed before the July 15, 1982, Lawn Lake flood. "The elk just hammer these willows," Connor said, pointing to stunted growth on one scraggly clump of dead shoots in a dry sand bar. "All of these new shoots that come up in the summer get chewed back down by the elk in the fall."....
Foes blast Desert Rock The Bureau of Indian Affairs got an earful from Durango residents Wednesday as one person after another streamed to the microphone to speak out against the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project. The federal agency hosted a public hearing to gather comments about the power plant. It followed on the May release of a draft Environmental Impact Statement, a key step toward construction. The EIS said the power plant would have several environmental impacts on the surrounding area in northern New Mexico, but nothing significant enough to stop the project. Speakers at the hearing Wednesday were having none of that. "Nobody wants a power plant," said Nathan Caceres, who lives in Burnham, N.M. Forty-nine people signed to speak. Of the first 39, only one voiced support. Desert Rock would generate 1,500 megawatts of electricity from a site on Navajo land about 30 miles southwest of Farmington. Sithe Global Power, a New York-based international corporation, and Diné Power Authority, a Navajo company, are pushing the $2.5 billion coal-fired power plant. Environmentalists fiercely oppose the project, saying it will worsen pollution emitted by two older power plants in northern New Mexico. Desert Rock representatives say it will provide much-needed jobs and tax revenue to the Navajo Nation while generating electricity for booming Southwest cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas....
Forest Service is blamed in deaths The U.S. Forest Service committed serious safety violations that contributed to the deaths of five of its firefighters in a Southern California blaze last year, workplace safety regulators alleged Thursday. The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the Forest Service for nine safety violations, including failing to provide firefighters on the front lines of the Esperanza Fire with maps and crucial information about potentially hazardous weather conditions. OSHA ordered the Forest Service to fix the unsafe working conditions within 15 days. Asked whether the agency believed the violations led to the firefighters' deaths, Department of Labor spokesman Roger Gayman responded, "By implication, yes." Messages left at the office of San Bernardino National Forest Supervisor Jeanne Wade Evans and the Forest Service's Washington, D.C, office were not immediately returned....
Ending the cycle of catastrophic fires It seems that this time every year, we find ourselves in the same precarious situation of watching our hillsides get drier and drier while the summer gets hotter and hotter, until a fire erupts and we scramble to contain it and minimize its effect. Once the fire's been put out and things return to normal (for the most part), we do little to prevent future fires. Then summer hits once again and we're back to square one. It's time we put an end to this cycle. The existing hands-off approach is simply not acceptable -- suppression alone is a flawed policy whereby forest fires are merely put out and there isn't enough active forest management. This policy has resulted in the Lake Tahoe basin having twice as many trees as normally would be sustained. As a result of certain crippling environmental laws regarding forestry, this calamity has endangered our families, children and firefighters, destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands of residents, threatened our air and water quality, and caused millions of dollars of damage to the Lake Tahoe region. There is a group of people who tend to the more extreme side of environmentalism, who insist upon stricter air quality regulations on industries and agriculture, and yet endorse policies such as an arbitrary limit on the size of trees that can be removed from our forests and the exclusion of biomass (converting forest waste into usable energy) as a form of alternative fuel. These are the same policies that have led to overgrown, dense forests that act as "powder kegs," as termed by Thomas Bonnicksen, a professor at Texas A&M and an expert on forestry and forest management....
Drones Raise Safety Issues as Service Roles Multiply From the comfort of a control center at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California, pilot Mark Pestana will gun the throttle of his unmanned aircraft, pull back on the stick and gently guide his plane into the sky next month. But he will not be using the high-tech modified Predator B drone to seek out and kill insurgents in Iraq or Taliban in Afghanistan. Instead, his mission will be to comb the western United States for forest fires and to relay infrared images and photographs of the blazes to firefighters on the ground. This year, regulators expect to grant more than 130 waivers to government agencies to use unmanned flying machines, up from 64 two years ago. The FAA has granted private companies nine certificates to operate drones in the United States this year -- a total of 13 have been granted since 2005 -- so they can test their products, regulators said. Rescuers in December sent up small drones in a last-ditch effort to locate hikers trapped on Mount Hood in Oregon, and the Forest Service evaluated small drones during a blaze in Montana last summer to see whether they were capable of helping firefighters. The agency says it expects firefighters on the ground to be outfitted with such backpack-sized drones by next year's fire season....
BLM withdraws oil, gas leases Federal officials said Thursday that dozens of oil and gas leases in Montana will be withdrawn from auction and pledged to look more closely at the environmental consequences of such development, particularly near the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The announcement followed vocal opposition from conservation groups and state officials who claimed the federal government's pro-energy policies threaten wildlife populations. "It's a huge step if they're willing to do things differently," said T.O. Smith, energy coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks. A petroleum industry representative, Dave Galt, warned that the BLM's action could "complicate development of resources in the Rocky Mountain West." At issue are the effects of increased drilling under the Bush administration on public lands stretching from Montana to New Mexico. In deferring the lease sales on 73,000 acres Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management pledged to consider whether additional industry restrictions are needed in light of emerging wildlife research from the University of Wyoming and the University of Montana. Recent studies have tied intensive oil and gas development to sharp declines in game species including mule deer and sage grouse. Energy companies contend there is not enough proof of declines to draw definitive conclusions....
BLM Sees Worsening Off-Road Crisis Risking Visitor Safety The U.S. Bureau of Land Management foresees "a continued rise in the number and severity of incidents involving crimes against persons" fueled by firearms, drugs and alcohol at mass off-road gatherings during holiday weekends, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As reckless off-road vehicle use rises, land management agencies are losing their ability to safeguard visitors or prevent injuries, let alone protect the landscapes from being scarred, burned and trashed. A 2007 BLM analysis of the preparedness of its Little Sahara Recreational Area, obtained by PEER under the Freedom of Information Act, finds that the "high number of personal injury accidents, lost persons, littering, burning of flammable materials on the mountain and various safety violations" caused by irresponsible off-roading were fanning visitor fears and producing "a nearly all-reactive law enforcement operation with little opportunity to deter or reduce unlawful behavior." This official forecast, however, did little to prepare the agency for the 2007 Easter weekend when a gathering of an estimated one thousand off-road vehicle enthusiasts at Little Sahara degenerated into "near riot conditions," according to the BLM incident report....
Preble's meadow mouse may end up back on endangered species list The director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may keep a rare jumping mouse in the Rocky Mountains on the endangered species list after all. The Preble's meadow jumping mouse, the Southwestern willow flycatcher and several other species vying for survival could get a new lease on life from the agency, whose director, H. Dale Hall, is reviewing decisions affecting them, The Associated Press has learned. They are among the plants and animals affected by up to 10 decisions involving former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald that might be reversed or modified, a government official said Thursday night, speaking on condition of anonymity because a decision had not yet been made. MacDonald resigned in May as deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks after the department's inspector general found that she had broken federal rules and should be punished for bullying federal scientists and improperly leaking information about endangered species to private groups. "We're reviewing a number of decisions that Julie MacDonald was involved with and we're determining how best to proceed," said Chris Tollefson, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, who wouldn't confirm anything more. "There are a lot of things under consideration."....
Asian Parasite Killing Western Bees - Scientist A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years. The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae said Mariano Higes, who leads a team of researchers at a government-funded apiculture centre in Guadalajara, the province east of Madrid that is the heartland of Spain's honey industry. He and his colleagues have analysed thousands of samples from stricken hives in many countries. "We started in 2000 with the hypothesis that it was pesticides, but soon ruled it out," he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday....
Panel Agrees on New Labels for Meat The House Agriculture Committee voted Thursday night to require country of origin labels on meats beginning next year, striking a compromise as reports of tainted food from China raise consumer awareness about imported food safety. After days of negotiations between both sides, the committee agreed to allow the mandatory labels but soften penalties and burdensome record-keeping requirements that had concerned many food retailers and meatpackers who opposed the law. The committee adopted by voice vote the labeling changes just before it approved a five-year farm law that would govern agriculture programs. Herseth Sandlin and others, including consumer groups, were most concerned that meats could not be given a USA label unless the animals were born, raised and slaughtered in the United States. ``There has to be some reflection of the fact that these animals were born elsewhere,'' Herseth Sandlin said after the vote. The agreement maintains that standard, but it also allows the labels to list the United States as one of several countries of origin if the meat is mixed. Virginia Rep. Robert Goodlatte, the top Republican on the Agriculture panel and a lawmaker who has never supported a mandatory labeling law, helped broker the agreement. He said the ``overwhelming majority'' of interests are behind it now....
Earliest inhabitants seen in new light The narrow two-lane road connecting modern commuters in the Tularosa Basin with the many resort communities and ranches in the Sacramento Mountains winds between the steep slopes of Fresnal Canyon. Those who make the drive are subject to dangerous weather conditions, from high summer temperatures and torrential thunderstorms to freezing snows during the winter. Ancient communities used the same canyon route, while establishing residences on either side of the road. During more than 1,500 years of occupation, climate was the motivator for adjustment and mobility among those who chose to live there. These same people also developed relationships to the far south and north with other growing civilizations present at that time. By the time the two sites and their extended "cultural ecological landscape" were finally abandoned, in approximately 250 to 300 A.D., the development of early Puebloan culture began to appear throughout the American Southwest. The Fresnal and High Rolls sites are among the earliest testaments to this transformation....
Cowboy scribes treat audience to their poems on the range The spotlight on the Murray Park Amphitheater stage grew brighter, and the air filled with the audience's laughter and applause for Michael Robinson, Stan Tixier and Don Kennington of the cowboy-poetry performing group Sidekicks. Taking the stage first, Kennington brought his poems to life with animated arm movements as he acted out parts of the poems. He had the audience gasping for breath in a fit of laughter when he impersonated the female antagonist of one poem. While reciting his poem "Shoeing Ol' Rivet," he bent his knees and grabbed at an invisible horse's hoof. Then, out of breath, he put the imaginary hoof down and leaned on the rear end of the horse. His facial gestures corresponded with the poem's moods. " 'Cause he's having trouble breathing and I ain't sure just what to do," recited Kennington, "I hope he ain't a-dyin'. He'd be wasting three new shoes."....