NEWS ROUNDUP


Hungry bears break into homes in Red Lodge, causing big mess Gladys Clark is thinking she ought to get herself a slingshot so she'll be ready the next time a bear comes for breakfast. At 91, Clark concedes she'll have to practice, but she was handy with one when she was an Eastern Montana ranch girl riding the range. Sunday morning, Clark pulled open the sliding glass door on her log home on Rock Creek in Red Lodge to let in some fresh air and went upstairs to get ready for the day. When she came downstairs, a large black bear was standing with its paws on her counter and rummaging through the kitchen cupboards. "Let me put it this way: I was startled," she said. So she screamed, "What are you doing in my kitchen? Get out of here!" "I screamed and I kept screaming at him, and he looked back at me over his shoulder and then walked around the little kitchen table and out the door," she said. The night before, downstream on Rock Creek, a bear helped itself to the contents of Janis Frank's cupboards after breaking through a storm door to get inside. Luckily, Frank, 80, was outside on the front porch when the bear let himself in. When she ran around back and saw the mangled door, she figured it was a bear and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911. With a game warden's help, the bear was evicted, but not before it ransacked Frank's kitchen....
Ranchers face big losses of cattle, grazing land The temperature was 140 degrees in the sun and the ground was still smoldering Sunday when firefighters first allowed rancher Lee Yardley back into charred grazing land to survey the damage done to his cattle herd by the Milford Flat Fire. “About 95 percent of my herd’s grass feed was destroyed up there,” said Yardley as he stood in a field of black ash. “And I still don’t even know how many head I’ve lost.” The fire has burned more than 334,000 acres across central Utah since Friday, and much of the land is open range leased by ranchers for cattle grazing. Yardley, a fifth-generation cattle rancher who runs a 1,000-acre ranch with his brother Joe in Sulphurdale, had much of his herd scattered when the fire overran firefighters Saturday and burned the land while his cattle grazed. Some cows wandered back to the ranch, some were found miles away and badly burned, and others didn’t make it at all, he said during another outing Wednesday to locate his cows. The Yardleys’ uncle, Mike Yardley, a cattle rancher near Milford, where the fire started, had his herds hit the hardest, Lee Yardley said. His uncle’s herd of 600 cattle was grazing in Rock Corral Canyon when the fire “came down on top of them” and killed most of them. But, he added, he had found six of his uncle’s cows wandering 50 miles from their home Tuesday....
Energy firm agrees to protect birds Yates Petroleum Corp. has agreed to evaluate its power line facilities in Wyoming and New Mexico and make modifications to prevent bird deaths. The action is part of a settlement agreement involving Yates, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The case stems from the discovery of four dead eagles found near power lines owned by Yates at its coalbed methane facilities in the Powder River Basin. As part of the settlement Yates paid $10,000 in penalties, half of which will go to the Murie Audubon State Rehabilitation Fund. "Yates is pleased with the agreement and anxious to work with (the Fish and Wildlife Service) and the Murie Fund to protect our nation's birds," said Lisa Norton, environmental manager for Yates. In addition to facility upgrades, Yates has agreed to develop a comprehensive avian protection plan, ongoing monitoring and employee training regarding raptor and migratory bird protection. So far, Yates has spent $25,000 in facility upgrades, according to the company....
Finding common ground on land use in West The Sopris Foundation will hold a conference on "Innovative Ideas for a New West" Friday through Sunday at the Wilma Theater. Missoula is not the only midsize city in the West experiencing unprecedented changes in land use. In fact, its struggles are typical of the challenges facing many other communities. And that's what makes it the perfect place for the Sopris Foundation's annual conference examining regional land-use issues, said Piper Foster, manager of the Aspen, Colo.-based organization. The Sopris Foundation was seeded 14 years ago by Colorado rancher Kate McBride Puckett and her father, John McBride, a developer who was involved in the creation of Vail and Snowmass ski resorts. One of its primary goals is to help communities like Missoula gain access to innovative ideas, Foster said, and the yearly conference has become an increasingly popular way of meeting that goal....
Endangered Species Act misused at times With utmost respect for endangered and threatened species — including three dozen snails, two fuzzy lichens and the Singapore roundleaf horseshoe bat — it seems we might have strayed slightly off the healthy-planet path. ESA requires staggering investments in time and effort and money to save bugs and bushes often in countries that cannot provide electricity and running water to most of their citizens. But never mind world politics. Another unfortunate consequence of the well-intended ESA is its use as a weapon against legitimate and beneficial land use. One of the reasons so many species face extinction today is that our fast-growing population continues to mow and plow and build on once-uninhabitable (at least by people) habitat. As the world's dominant species, that's what we do. Protecting fragile ecosystems is fast becoming the priority it should be here and abroad, but ESA has been marched out frivolously in some cases to prevent change without just cause. A rancher out west lost everything after environmentalists filed documents to stop improvements to his ranch (and thus his family's lifestyle) because the construction threatened an ESA-protected mouse — which was proved later, after a lengthy and costly court battle, didn't exist on the property....
Judge deems Lower Owens River healthy The long legal battle stemming from Los Angeles' diversion of the Lower Owens River nearly a century ago took a historic turn Wednesday as an Inyo County judge declared the waterway restored. "I can now officially declare that the Lower Owens River is a river," Superior Court Judge Lee Cooper said at a hearing. Cooper also approved an agreement and order lifting the $5,000-a-day fine he imposed on Los Angeles in September 2005, to compel the city's Department of Water and Power to restore a 62-mile stretch of the river. The new pact, negotiated by Los Angeles with environmental groups and government agencies that had pressed the city to rehabilitate the river, will halt penalties that amounted to $3.3 million. Los Angeles still faces possible sanctions if it fails to maintain the required flow of water and monitoring of the river. It also faces other lawsuits filed by environmentalists....
Desert enemy No. 1: Buffelgrass University of Arizona researchers are preparing their first concerted attack against buffelgrass, an invading species that threatens to forever change this part of the Sonoran Desert. The search-and-destroy mission begins Aug. 2 at the Santa Rita Experimental Range east of Sahuarita, followed a couple of weeks later by an assault on thick stands of the tough, hard-to-kill plant on Tumamoc Hill, on Tucson's West Side. Buffelgrass, brought to this area decades ago from Africa as a possible source of erosion control and cattle forage, has spread like wildfire, crowding out native vegetation and creating a severe fire hazard. That makes it more than just an environmental issue — it's now a public-safety concern, said Travis Bean, a principal research specialist at the UA Desert Laboratory and buffelgrass expert. "Life and property, by far, are our priority, number-one concerns," Bean said. Experts say buffelgrass infestation in Central and Southern Arizona is doubling each year....
Ritter: Epidemic can't be stopped Gov. Bill Ritter said Wednesday that the pine beetle epidemic that has killed nearly half of the state's lodgepole pine trees will have an "impact for generations to come" and will change the look of Colorado's forests. After getting a look at stands of dead trees from the air, Ritter said the outbreak is part of a natural cycle that has been encouraged by the drought, milder winters and the fact there are so many clusters of the same type and age of tree that are attractive to the beetles. He said the epidemic can't be stopped, only managed to reduce the risk of wildfires. That will change the look of Colorado's forests as more pine trees die and are replaced with new ones. Ritter praised ski resorts for working to keep the bugs at bay by spraying insecticide on trees along their borders....
Senators:millions for Tahoe Basin unspent Nevada’s two senators complained Wednesday that millions of dollars they secured for the Lake Tahoe Basin in the past couple of years have gone unspent. “We worked hard to get this money,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “We expected this money to be spent.” Reid’s comments follow a devastating wildfire in the region, which burned about 3,100 acres and destroyed more than 200 homes in recent weeks. He and Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, met with U.S. Forest Service head Gail Kimbell at the Capitol on Wednesday to talk about ways they can help prevent another devastating fire in the Lake Tahoe area. More than $30 million has been set aside for the Lake Tahoe Basin from public land sale revenues in Nevada since 2005, according to Reid. The Forest Service has spent $12.5 million of that funding, according to Kent Connaughton, assistant deputy chief of the Forest Service....
Off-road groups want in on debate Off-roading groups are concerned that they could be left out of the discussion on how to prevent motorized vehicle damage to public lands. In late June, a group of 13 former rangers and public land managers calling themselves the Rangers for Responsible Recreation identified reckless off-roading as the No. 1 problem facing public lands across the U.S. The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which is supporting the ranger group, continued its national campaign on Tuesday when it released figures on criminal activity on lands under the protection of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or the BLM between 2004 and 2007. Across California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, BLM records showed about 6,600 off-road violations for hit-and-run and other driving offenses, and about twice as many incidents of driving under the influence for off-roaders as compared to automobiles, according to a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility or PEER. In interviews Tuesday, representatives of the national Off-Road Business Association and BlueRibbon Coalition said they support law enforcement cracking down on irresponsible riders who give the sport a bad name, but they also feel scapegoated....
Utah plans to join the Wild and Scenic Rivers System For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West – except two. Utah and Nevada have yet to place any rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however, that could change within the year. The Bureau of Land Management in Utah recently identified 30 river segments that are eligible for designation; another 118 are still being considered. The eligible segments include stretches of the Green River, Nine Mile Creek and Bitter Creek. Unlike Utah, however, Nevada has no plans to nominate any rivers. “I suppose the main reason is that Nevada is a very arid state and we don’t have many rivers,” says Dante Pistone of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. Across the nation, 11,409 segments of about 165 different rivers qualify as wild and scenic. About 70 percent of them are located in the West. Some of the best known include California’s Big Sur River, one of the longest coastal streams, which is lined with towering redwoods, and the Deschutes River in Oregon, which offers excellent whitewater rafting and a remarkable steelhead and native rainbow trout fishery....
Al Gore And NBC: Birds Of A Feather Politics: Was what Al Gore called "the largest global entertainment event in all of human history" also the largest in-kind political contribution? And where's the Fairness Doctrine when you need it? Considering that here in the U.S. the Peacock Network's three-hour Gore infomercial on global warming lost out in the ratings to "Cops" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," Gore's claim may be open to question. Live Earth, in fact, may have been America's funniest home video. Ever. But thanks in large part to the 75 hours of free airtime that NBC gave Gore on its various stations, starting with NBC and including CNBC, Bravo, the Sundance channel, Universal HD and Telemundo, Gore may now be the 800-pound gorilla this political season. Gore insists he's not running for president. Yet, as we have wondered before, why would a man who insists that global warming is the biggest threat to mankind, bigger than nuclear terror, not want control of the reins of a major world polluter and chief resister to Kyoto? Dan Harrison, an NBC corporate senior vice president, called the Gore effort "an initiative we believe in" -- the "we" presumably including corporate parent General Electric. (NYSE:GE) Yet he insisted: "I don't think climate change is a political issue." NBC and GE have other interests in hyping climate change. Let's not forget GE is the parent of NBC and stands to make a wad of cash from selling alternative energy products from wind turbines to solar panels to those compact fluorescent bulbs containing mercury....
Army says opponents have all of its Pinon documents Fort Carson says it has given a group opposing expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site all documents it has that the group has sued to get. An attorney for the group, Not One More Acre!, said Wednesday he is in the process of determining whether the group is satisfied that the Army has turned over all of the documents sought. "We hope to know by next week whether we can resolve the case (the lawsuit to obtain documents)," the attorney, Stephen Harris of Colorado Springs, said. The group sued the Army in February, seeking a court order to compel the Army to provide a variety of documents believed to be related to the controversial proposed expansion of the training site. The proposed expansion covers large parts of Southeastern Colorado and faces strong opposition from farmers and ranchers who own land and other property in the area....
Fight To Save Local Gym Enters Round 2 The National City councilmembers will consider a recommendation to renew its authority to take over private land for economic redevelopment, also known as eminent domain. The city's eminent domain authority expires next month. The city wants to redevelop its downtown area, specifically along National City Boulevard. One property standing in the way of that opportunity, according to the city, is the Community Youth Athletic Center. The gym's owners said at-risk youth have been going to the gym for five years to box, play and even do their homework. "This was literally a gun store. And what goes on in here at the 'house of respect' now is we teach kids how to live without using guns. That sounds like redevelopment to me," said Patrick Russell of the CYAC. But there are plans for private developers to build a high-rise condominium complex with office and retail space. Attorney Dana Berliner of the Institute For Justice told NBC 7/39, "Why is it that the gym owes it to the city to move their location, close their gym down for months, in order to make it more convenient for them to build condos here? If somebody wants to build condos, you can build them on whatever land they can buy."....
Judge halts hearing on DM&E A circuit judge has stopped a planned a three-day hearing on eminent domain for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's proposed train project to ship Wyoming coal. The hearing was to have begun Tuesday in Pierre. But Circuit Judge James Anderson ordered the South Dakota Transportation Commission to stop the hearing. Anderson also ordered the commission and the state Department of Transportation to appear at a hearing July 24 to show why the eminent-domain case should be allowed to proceed. The route of the new track would cross some western South Dakota ranches and other land owned by people who don't want to sell. Former Gov. Bill Janklow, a lawyer for several landowners, filed court documents arguing that the commission's procedure for hearing eminent-domain cases did not follow state law....
Editorial - California's asset grab IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE a more naked misuse of governmental power than California's sustained grab of assets it conveniently labels unclaimed property. For years, the state has been hunting for bank accounts, safe deposit boxes and other assets that it believes have been forgotten, then scooping up the proceeds and using them to balance its budget. Are those assets genuinely unclaimed? The truth is that the government does hardly anything to find out. In fact, it does just the opposite. It hires accountants and auditors who sift bank and real estate records looking for pots of gold and then take a commission on what the government seizes. Back in the 1980s, the government took over property only after it had made considerable efforts to track down the owners. It pored through public records and placed newspaper ads listing names and the accounts it believed to be abandoned. But that had the unwelcome effect of working, so every time the government found an owner, it denied itself the chance to steal the property. The solution? Stop looking so hard. The budget for the so-called locator unit was cut, and the government stopped running detailed public notices. The money then flowed more readily, and to date, California has seized well over $1 billion. It's pretty clear that the government did not exactly break a sweat in searching for some of the owners. A quick trip through the state controller's website Monday showed assets unclaimed by Antonio Villaraigosa, Willie Mays, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt — to name a handful of California's more recognizable figures. These people can't be difficult to track down. Mays is being honored at baseball's All-Star Game in San Francisco tonight; perhaps the state could have him paged....
NM Senator calls for border ranch support U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased that the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection will incorporate cattle fencing as part of their efforts to rebuild vehicle barriers along the New Mexico-Mexico border. In late June, Bingaman called on CBP to act quickly to replace a new vehicle barrier along the border that was unintentionally erected by the U.S. government on the Mexican side of the border. Bingaman also called on CBP to integrate a cattle component as part of the rebuilding process. The misplaced barrier is located about 17 miles west of Columbus. In a letter to Bingaman, CBP formally announced that they have begun the process of dismantling the 1.5 miles of existing vehicle barrier that was constructed on the Mexican side of the border and are simultaneously constructing new barrier on the U.S. side. Temporary fencing will be erected during the rebuilding process to ensure the border remains secure. The addition of a cattle component to the vehicle barrier is one of the key recommendations made by the Southwest New Mexico Border Security Task Force. Bingaman created the Border Task Force 2003....
Ranchers, officials trying to negotiate price of cattle tainted by brucellosis The Montana Board of Livestock issued an order Wednesday to slaughter a herd of quarantined cattle near Bridger if the owners and federal government cannot agree soon on a price for the animals. Seven cows from the ranch tested positive for brucellosis in May, and Montana could lose its coveted brucellosis-free status if the 600 or so cattle aren't slaughtered within 60 days of that discovery - or by July 17. Board members pushed up that deadline during a conference call, saying the state's billion-dollar livestock industry depends on a speedy resolution. Under the order, state officials will begin arranging for the herd's slaughter if no written agreement is reached by ranchers Jim and Sandy Morgan and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by midnight Friday. The Morgans would be compensated but not under the more expensive deal they have been seeking. "I'm totally sympathetic to (the herd owners), but we have to think about the rest of the state," board member Jan French said. "There are a lot of people with herds in Montana that this would affect." The Morgans called Wednesday's order unfair and said they felt "steamrolled by the state." "We're willing to do everything we can to help the state out," Jim Morgan said. "We would like a little help in return."....
Cowboy era lives on at 60-year-old steak house t’s a bizarre juxtaposition. Think urban neighborhood, and then visualize a nine-acre lot sporting a tiny old house with burlap sacks for curtains and a door from an old Yuma jail. Next to it, put Li’l Abner’s Steakhouse. That’s what you’ll find in the Continental Reserve neighborhood on Silverbell Road in Marana. “I used to tell people the way you find Abner’s is to get on Silverbell and drive until you find a building and smell mesquite,” said owner David Hoffman. “Now, I tell them to drive until they reach a bare spot.” The steak house turns 60 this year and stands as a reminder of the old ranching days from which today’s urban Marana sprang. In 1947, Larry and Duchess Lewis built Li’l Abner’s as a hangout for cowboy ranchers on land that in the 1860s served as a stage stop for Butterfield Express. Because he was an optician and she was a Hollywood dancer, the couple decided on an eyeglasses shop and a bar. “I like to say they would sell glasses to the cowboys after they’d had a couple of drinks,” Hoffman said. “When they woke up, they could see better.”....