NEWS ROUNDUP

Governor, U.S. Senators blame bureaucracy for Murphy blaze Response to the 600,000-acre-plus Murphy Complex fire near the Idaho-Nevada border was good but could have been better, Idaho’s U.S. Senate delegation and Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter said at a news conference in Boise today after touring the fire area. “We need to have much faster reaction from the federal government,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said at the event at Boise Airport. Federal bureaucratic delays prolonged the fire and enabled it to grow, officials said. Sen. Larry Craig,R-Idaho, said federal policies have limited grazing and contributed to the buildup of fire fuels. As for getting through the current fire season, potential solutions include arguing for more streamlined government decision making, and granting ranchers a waiver to graze animals on some current set-aside ground, officials said. “The key is flexibility of response right now,” Crapo said....
Political firestorm over wildfires grows Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo on Monday took up the cause of ranchers on the Idaho-Nevada border who blame federal grazing restrictions for allowing grass to grow tall on public land, which they say exacerbated the 1,030-square-mile Murphy Complex wildfires. That puts Otter and Craig, both ranchers, and Crapo, a lawyer, at odds with environmental groups that have fought in the courts to reduce livestock grazing in the region to help species such as the sage grouse. The Murphy fires were 98 percent contained Monday, said fire information officer Bill Watt in Castleford. Man-agers began releasing some of the 1,100 firefighters who were assigned to the blaze, touched off by lightning July 16. In all, 15 wildfires were burning Monday across Idaho, the most of any state. Two years ago, a federal judge ruled that half of the 1.7-million-acre Jarbidge resource area where the Murphy Com-plex has burned was no longer open to livestock grazing because the Bureau of Land Management didn't adequately determine the impact to sage grouse habitat in 28 livestock grazing allotments used by 11 ranchers. The ruling came after a lawsuit from Hailey-based Western Watersheds Project, an environmental group....
Washington State Prepares for Return of Wolves Even after scouring muddy logging roads for tracks and dousing the ground with canine urine, Scott Fisher didn't get his hopes up. The state biologist was sure that finding one of the West's most mysterious predators skulking about the forests of Pend Oreille County in northeastern Washington would, as usual, prove elusive. But late last month Fisher flipped open his laptop and downloaded pictures from a camera he had hung from a tree. There on the first frame were two eyes buried in a puff of dark fur. A gray wolf. "We weren't surprised it was there, just that we caught it on camera," said Fisher, a biologist with the Washington Department of Natural Resources. "It's so much better to be lucky than good."....
Life after man: a vision of the future Picture a world from which we all suddenly vanished. Tomorrow. Look around you at today's world. Your house, your city, the surrounding land, the pavement underneath, and the soil hidden below that. Leave it all in place, but extract the human beings. Wipe us out, and see what's left. How would the rest of nature respond if it were suddenly relieved of the relentless pressures we heap on it and our fellow organisms? How soon would, or could, the climate return to where it was before we fired up all our engines? How long would it take to recover lost ground and restore Eden to the way it must have gleamed and smelled the day before Adam, or Homo habilis, appeared? Could nature ever obliterate all our traces? On the day after humans disappear, nature takes over and immediately begins cleaning house – or houses, that is. Cleans them right off the face of the Earth. They all go....
Off-roaders take toll on public land For increasing numbers of Arizonans, the roar and rush of an off-road vehicle are just part of enjoying the desert landscape. But when those tires veer into places they're not supposed to go, the desert suffers the consequences. More people than ever are using off-road vehicles on Arizona's public lands. Registered off-road vehicles have increased more than fourfold in a decade, from 49,282 in 1998 to 237,953 through the end of June, according to the state Motor Vehicle Division. But as interest in the activity has grown, so have the numbers of people breaking the law by veering from designated roads onto renegade trails. Environmentalists say the desert is suffering as a result of improper use of off-road vehicles, also known as off-highway vehicles because dirt paths often count as roads on public lands....
Plan to thin timber gets approval A federal judge on Monday said a plan to log up to 2,500 acres to reduce forest fire dangers in the Gallatin National Forest can proceed, but blocked the construction of any new logging roads across prime grizzly bear habitat. A plaintiff in the case described the mixed ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy as a "victory for grizzly bears," while a U.S. Forest Service ranger said the ruling would affect only a small number of acres and not hamper the agency's overall objective. The Forest Service's fuels reduction project south of Big Timber is designed to slow major fires and give people a chance to flee along the area's sole evacuation route. By removing stands of fast-burning conifer trees and allowing less-flammable aspen to grow in their place, the service hopes to reduce the intensity of future fires within a corridor of recreation homes and campgrounds along the main fork of the Boulder River. The agency was sued last year by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council, which claimed the plan violated rules to protect grizzly bears and other wildlife....
Forest Service to unveil global warming forest plan Temperatures are rising and forests are drying out as a number of wildfires sweep through the West. Scientists are trying to figure out ways to combat what they believe are direct signs of global warming. Some time this year, the Forest Service is reportedly expected to unveil a new global warming related forest management plan. This comes in the wake of several devastating fires in our area. To date, the Tripod Fire, is the largest for Washington in more than a century. At its height, it took over more than 175,000 acres. Experts are now warning wildfires like this could become more common. According to published reports, high temperatures are adding stress to forests, stimulating the growth of underbrush and other fuels. In our area, experts say the greatest threat is east of the Cascade Mountains. Reports say later this year, the Forest Service is expected to unveil a new global warming related forest management plan. It could involve planting additional acres, thinning existing stands and burning the leftover debris....
BLM plans more horse roundups Last January, federal cowboys were able to round up about 920 wild horses in southwest Wyoming before bad weather shut down gathering operations. Federal managers are proposing to return to some of those wild horse herds in the region later this summer and gather more horses in their continuing effort to reduce overpopulated herds, Bureau of Land Management officials said. Horses will also be rounded up from the Divide Basin herd management area and on private lands within the three herd management units, BLM officials said in a "scoping" statement. The three units are located in eastern Sweetwater and western Carbon counties. Both proposed actions were analyzed and authorized in previous environmental assessments issued by the BLM in 2006 and 2007. BLM officials have long maintained that Wyoming's wild horse population is above desired numbers and is growing. Federal officials contend wild horses have no natural predators, and with a reproduction rate of about 15 to 20 percent annually, must be periodically removed from the range to achieve population objectives and to protect public rangelands from undue degradation....
Mexico seeks changes in border plan Mexico called on the United States to alter a plan to expand border fences designed to stem illegal immigration, saying the barriers would threaten migratory species accustomed to roaming freely across the frontier. Ways of minimizing environmental damage from the fences could include the creation of cross-border bridge areas so that ecosystems remain connected and "green corridors" of wilderness without roads that would be less attractive to smugglers, according to a report released Monday and prepared for the Mexican government by experts and activists from both nations. The report also suggested "live" fences of cactuses, removable fencing, and more permeable barriers to allow water, insects and pollen to cross the border. Ecologists say among the species affected would be Mexican jaguars and black bears, and the endangered, antelope-like Sonora Pronghorn. On Monday, Mexico's Environment Department said the proposed fences would seriously hurt species that cross the 1,952-mile border and that the United States needs to alter or mitigate the barriers where necessary....
Cheney to skip hearing on Klamath salmon die-off Charging that Vice President Dick Cheney contributed to a 2002 die-off of about 70,000 salmon near the California-Oregon border, House Democrats planned a hearing Tuesday to explore his intervention in the Klamath River Basin. But some House Republicans say the hearing in the Natural Resources Committee could upset negotiations to end years of battling over the region, where drought in 2001 led to a cutoff of irrigation water — and then a diversion to help farmers. That diversion, directed in part by Cheney, resulted in the largest adult salmon kill in the history of the West, Democrats say. At the very least, Cheney's actions to help farmers at the expense of threatened fish demonstrated the Bush administration's "penchant to favor politics over science in the implementation of the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the Natural Resources panel. Republicans counter that there is no evidence Cheney did anything improper and say the evidence doesn't support blaming his actions for the fish kill....
Senators Go to Global Warming's Front Lines A delegation of senators traveled by fishing boat and helicopter last weekend through a remote stretch of Greenland that's covered by a thick -- and receding -- sheet of glacial ice. The group of seven Democrats, two Republicans and one independent set out to explore firsthand the effects of climate change in a region where glacial melting and rising sea levels have already forced the human and animal population to adapt. The senators returned Sunday from the two-day trip, and Democrats, along with independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke about their experiences in a press conference Monday. "After this trip ... I know I have a responsibility to move now to lessen the impacts of severe global warming," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. "We can do it in a way that actually makes us stronger as a nation, and that is my goal." Marc Morano, GOP Environment and Public Works Committee spokesman, published a bulletin Monday morning refuting the notion of global warming. Titled "Latest Scientific Studies Refute Fears of Greenland Melt," the blog entry lists a series of scientific studies that call into question the human element many view as the cause behind global warming. "The very latest research reveals massive Greenland melt fears are not sustainable. Current Greenland temperatures are neither alarming nor linked to a rise in man-made carbon dioxide emissions," wrote Morano....
Lightning strikes Boy Scouts in N.M.; none seriously hurt Nine Boy Scouts and two adults avoided serious injury after being struck by lightning as they were hiking on a 12,441-foot mountain at the Philmont Scout Ranch in northeastern New Mexico. The group was struck Sunday afternoon, and all were treated and returned to the ranch or were en route back by Monday morning, said John Van Dreese, associate director of programs for Philmont. The 11 were hiking toward the tree line after summiting Baldy Mountain when lightning struck, he said. Most were able to walk to a base camp at an elevation of 10,000 on Baldy Mountain, where Philmont vehicles and at least one ambulance took them to area health facilities, Philmont officials said. One was airlifted to Santa Fe for treatment....
Carnivore sex off the menu A new phenomenon in New Zealand is taking the idea of you are what you eat to the extreme. Vegansexuals are people who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of dead animals. The co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human and Animal Studies at Canterbury University, Annie Potts, said she coined the term after doing research on the lives of "cruelty-free consumers". Many female respondents described being attracted to people who ate meat, but said they did not want to have sex with meat-eaters because their bodies were made up of animal carcasses....
Businessman Don King dies Don King, the founder of King's Saddlery and King Ropes, died Saturday at Sheridan Memorial Hospital. He was 83 and had been suffering from cancer. King's businesses are well-known for manufacturing ropes and saddles for working cowboys. He founded the famous saddle and rope shop on Main Street in 1963. King worked as a cowboy around the West as he grew up. He began to support himself at age 14 by working odd jobs on ranches and rodeos and worked with leather in his spare time. King married Dorothy Clapp in 1944. He returned to Wyoming after his discharge from the U.S. Coast Guard in 1945 and settled in Sheridan. King built ornamental saddles for Cheyenne Frontier Days and other events. His style of tooling, known as the Sheridan style, is characterized by wild roses arranged in scroll-like patterns of interlocking circles. King's family said that he developed and twisted a rope for left-handed ropers. He has also trained a number of top-notch saddle makers....
South Texas rancher finds mysterious animal Reports of blue, hairless creatures roaming the countryside from Elmendorf to Cuero. Ranchers talking of livestock being drained of blood. Put the two together, and it sounds like the legend of the chupacabra. One rancher says she has the evidence to back it up. What Canion wanted was the creature's head, and that's just what she's got in her freezer now. Canion said the animal has been lurking around the ranch for years, first snatching cats, and then chickens right through a wire cage. "(It) opened it, reached in, pulled the chicken head out, sucked all the blood out of the chicken, left the chicken in the cage," Canion said. At least two dozen chickens were sucked dry, with the meat left on the bone. Canion's neighbors speculated the blue-colored animal was a chupacabra. The name chupacabra translated from Spanish means goat-sucker, for the creature's habit of sucking the blood of livestock. Canion said her neighbors have reported goats drained of their blood. "Is (a chupacabra) what it is? We don't know what it is, but that's what we'll call it!" Canion said. And not just one, but three unknown animals have been spotted outside of town in recent days. All of them have blue skin, no hair and strange teeth....
Competition shows fairgoers a dog-herd-cow world Sunday was Ted's big day. The 6-year-old brown border collie was about to compete for the first time at the Stanislaus County Fair's Working Ranch Dog Competition. About a dozen dogs and their owners were timed as they worked to herd two cows into a pen. It's something these teams are used to doing — after all, it's part of everyday life on a ranch. While a laid-back Ted sat in the shade waiting his turn to compete, Ted's owner, Joann Freitas of Gustine, was nervous about his first show. "I'm apprehensive," Freitas said, as she watched one team herd both cows into the pen in under 47 seconds. "He does great at home, but it's tough to tell how he'll do out here." Ranchers commonly use dogs — most often border collies because of their working instinct — to herd cattle and sheep. Sunday's competition was designed to show off the ranch dogs' exceptional obedience and utility. "On a ranch, the goal is to get the cattle into the corral as fast as possible so you can do what you want to do with them," said Tony Xavier, the competition's cocoordinator. "In these trials, the dogs aren't judged — they're timed. It's about getting it done quickly and efficiently."....
Real-life wrangler ropes a bull on loose near Elko For at least 11 days, the Brahma bull wandered around farms near Elko, trying to get into corrals with cows, worrying ranchers and generally making a nuisance of himself. Every time the owner showed up with a trailer to retrieve him, the bull made a beeline for the woods. On Monday, ranchers had finally had enough. It looked like the bull's adventures might end with a bullet. Enter Damon Rogers, cowboy and rodeo clown. Handy with a rope and canny about cows, he talks with a drawl as wide as the Texas plains. When he lived in Texas, Rogers was often called by county officials to round up wandering cattle. But things changed two years ago when he married a Mayo Clinic nurse and moved to Rochester. He still shoes horses and works as a rodeo clown, but cattle-catching calls have been few and far between.....
Last real Coyote hunter: A man who wrestles coyotes doesn't much need to brag In the early 1900s, President Teddy Roosevelt came to Tillman County to go hunting with Jack Abernathy, a rancher who was famous from Texas to Wyoming for being "a real coyote hunter." He didn't shoot the coyotes -- dogs cornered them, then Abernathy wrestled the coyotes with his own hands. And to this day, Tillman County brags about Roosevelt coming to watch. "But Abernathy cheated," Eoff says. "He wore a glove with spikes in it and he'd ram that glove down the coyote's throat. The coyote never had a chance." When Eoff catches a coyote, he uses his bare hands. No gloves. No spikes. "If a coyote bites down on me," he says, "I don't panic." If you jerk your hand back, the coyote's teeth will rip flesh off the bone. So Eoff calmly digs a fingernail into the soft roof of the coyote's mouth. "When it lets go, grab it by the throat and yank it up," Eoff says. "When you get all four legs off the ground, the fight is over. You've won." He can't count how many fights he has won -- either against coyotes or other men....
It's All Trew: Conditioning a saddle into tiptop quality venture a guess that only one in 10 readers will be familiar with the term "Neatsfoot Oil." This oil has been a mainstay in saddle and harness maintenance for centuries. No old-time, self-respecting rancher, farmer or cowboy would be caught without a can sitting in his saddle or harness storage. This distinctive smell of the oil in a saddle house seems to say, "This man cares for his gear." The "neat" comes from an old English word meaning oxen. The oil part comes from an ancient recipe in which oxen shin bones were cooked to create the concoction. Being of livestock organic origin, the oil was thought to penetrate leather and retain flexibility better than other lightweight oils and make it more waterproof. Today, we have multiple soaps, lubricants, oils, waxes and cleaners all designed to clean and protect leather products. The price of today's saddles and leather gear encourages owners to take care of their tack. In the old days, a saddle was often the only financial asset many cowboys had. A friend who collects and deals in saddles and Old West tack says he cleans his dirty acquisitions by taking them to a car wash, where hot, soapy water under pressure does the job. When the leather is dry, he replaces the oils with new. He likes Neatsfoot Oil underneath and the new leather conditions out on top, giving a shiny look. Somehow this cleaning process conjures up the image of a cowboy leading his saddled horse into a car wash and inserting his coins. Maybe Baxter Black will use this as a subject someday....