NEWS ROUNDUP

Wolves blamed for calves' deaths A Big Hole Valley rancher was issued a shoot-on-sight permit after wildlife officials confirmed a wolf killed a calf on his property last week and probably caused the death of another. State wildlife officials confirmed this week that one calf on the west side of the valley was killed by wolves and said a second calf that was found dead was also likely the victim of wolves. Wolves in the Miner Lake pack are suspected to have been involved in the incident. Officials issued a shoot-on-sight permit to the Big Hole Valley landowner, whose name was not released, and have authorized a federal trapper to kill the uncollared alpha male wolf of the pack because he is suspected of committing the attacks, state wildlife biologist Liz Bradley said in a telephone interview. "We're trying to just remove the one animal, which is the alpha male," she told the Montana Standard newspaper in Butte....
Pressure to Kill Wolves Mounting Across the Western USA Twelve years after reintroducing gray wolves to the Northern Rockies, the federal government has announced a plan that allows many of these same wolves and their offspring to be killed. Farther south, New Mexico Governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson Friday called for revision of state and federal wolf operating procedures after an endangered Mexican gray wolf was killed last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The government wants to remove the wolves from the endangered species list in late 2007 or early 2008, a move that conservation groups oppose. The new proposal allows wolves in the Northern Rockies to be killed before they are formally delisted. "The government wants to treat wolves like vermin instead of an endangered species," said Louisa Willcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC. "It's trying to reverse one of the most successful wildlife recovery programs in U.S. history."....
Range wary Rancher Carey Hurd stands on a northern Nevada hillside and hangs his head. What was thousands of acres of prime grazing land Friday is now tar-black soot, and the burned bodies of his livestock litter the bizarre, smoldering landscape. Each one of these cattle, maybe a half-dozen within view, is worth at least $1,000. Hurd's livestock fell victim to the Highway 93 Complex Fire, a blaze that began with a lightning strike Friday afternoon and has escalated into an 80,000-acre disaster requiring the presence of the nation's top incident teams. The fire is yet to threaten many homes, but for Hurd and other ranchers that graze their cattle on Bureau of Land Management pastures and private property, the blaze is endangering their livelihoods. As many as 15 Magic Valley ranchers with grazing rights in northern Nevada have rushed to the fire in hopes of saving their cattle. Over the weekend, hundreds of livestock became trapped in a canyon, surrounded by flames. Ranchers worked on horseback and on ATVs, sometimes hardly stopping to sleep, to shepherd their animals from harm's way....
Finding Hope in the New Climate For a hint of the future of life on the plains, take a look at the shortgrass steppe, and a species of grass called blue grama. I’ve lately been saying that blue grama could be credited as the grass that won the West. This grass has a wide distribution -- all the way from the southern Canadian plains to central Mexico. According to researchers who’ve studied this grass in long-term projects, blue grama has been in decline. The documented decline has been enough to create some nervousness about the future of the western cattle industry. So, what’s behind its downhill trend? Blue grama is a C4 grass, which automatically raises the question of whether it’s documented decline stems from nothing more that rising concentrations of CO2. However, this C4 grass is something of a rarity for not being put at competitive disadvantage under elevated CO2 levels. So something else is afoot here. In a word, it’s heat. Some years ago, Science published an article by Colorado State University researchers who tested an hypothesis that warmer overnight temperatures were behind blue grama’s decline. Their hypothesis was supported by the evidence. But the researchers subsequently tested an alternative hypothesis – that longer growing seasons were behind the decline. The evidence supported the second hypothesis too. Support for both hypotheses doesn’t mean that each is competitive with the other. Instead, the warmer overnight temps and longer growing seasons share their origins in rising temperatures, and Colorado State’s scientists have calculated that blue grama declines by 30 percent per each degree C of warming....
Allard: Bigger Pinon Canyon financial boon for the region Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said the Army's planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site could mean an economic benefit of $500 million or more to the Pikes Peak region. However, he acknowledged there is little benefit being offered to Las Animas County ranchers should they have to sell their land to provide the 414,000 additional acres being targeted. "I think the cities of Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Canon City need to get together and decide if they want this economic development," Allard said Tuesday after reviewing the Army's brief response to several questions he had given Army Secretary Pete Geren last month. Allard declined to say whether he would support or remove an amendment to the 2008 military construction appropriations bill that would ban any expenditure on the expansion next year. The amendment was put in the House bill last month by Colorado Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Allard will have considerable influence on whether that amendment stays in a final bill....
Cheatgrass gets the better of reseeding efforts The cheatgrass that has fueled wildfires throughout Utah can grow back fast on the blackened rangelands, again becoming the propellant for many more blazes in the future. "It's amazing just how flammable cheatgrass is," said Bert Hart, a natural resource specialist with the Bureau of Land Management. "If you lit the same amount of cheatgrass and gasoline, it'd be hard to say which one would burn the fastest." Four fires are actively burning in Utah with varying degrees of containment, including the 311,000-acre Milford Flat fire in Beaver and Millard counties. Five others have been fully contained. Together, they have charred more than 415,000 acres. The cheatgrass scourge will not end when fires are extinguished. Winds will kick up exposed soil into dust storms, and rains can bring floods. Reseeding efforts to stop erosion and bring back native plants will be difficult - and there likely isn't near enough seed. Similar efforts failed in 1996 after the South Twin Peaks fire, which charred 28,000 acres near Interstate 15 in Millard and Beaver counties, Hart said. It was cheatgrass that flourished in the reseeded zone - the same area where the biggest wildfire in state history continues to burn....
Guard closes ranges, investigates fire The Montana National Guard has closed its three firing ranges in Montana until an investigation into the fire that began at Fort Harrison and scorched 550 acres on Monday is completed. The blaze began when machine-gun rounds were fired at the Fort Harrison weapons training range. National Guard Public Affairs Specialist Dan Bushnell said investigators will review standard operating procedures and in-place safety precautions. "We've got some work to do. We've got to get to the bottom of this so it doesn't happen again," he said. In addition to Fort Harrison, the Guard has ranges at Limestone Hills west of Townsend and Waco, which is east of Billings. It is not uncommon to have fires during training, Bushnell said. Officials look at risk factors including wind and heat every day the range is active and didn't see anything that seemed unsafe Monday. The extreme wind gusts were not in the forecast, he said....
Cabin with a view: Landowner, USFS spar over access Katherine Wikstrom wants to build a little cabin at the top of Confederate Gulch where she can create watercolors of the scenery, and she’d also like to share the fabulous overview of Canyon Ferry Reservoir with the general public. But Wikstrom, a philosophical firecracker in her early 70s, needs the blessing of the U.S. Forest Service to drive across its property to get to the old mining claims she owns on a plateau up Jimmy’s Gulch. While federal agency officials agree they have to allow reasonable access to Wikstrom, it doesn’t necessarily want to open that portion of the national forest to the general public, so it’s asking Wikstrom to install a locked gate that would limit motorized use. That bothers Wikstrom. “If somebody wants to go up the road and look for a couple of (gold) nuggets, then fine,” Wikstrom said. “I really don’t like gates because they obstruct regular people, who might like to go on top of the plateau and walk around at the top of Confederate Gulch. I would really like people to have access.” An old road, which is in fairly good shape, already leads to Wikstrom’s five mining claims. But the Forest Service closed the road in 1989 for big game security, to reduce the spread of noxious weeds and to reduce soil erosion....
3 counties saying no to river designations As the U.S. Forest Service considers which of its river segments should receive congressional protection, the Mountainland Association of Governments has sent a clear message for its area: none of them. At a recent MAG executive council meeting, local officials representing Summit, Wasatch and Utah counties voted unanimously to send a letter to the Forest Service requesting that none of the 21 proposed river segments in their areas be submitted to Congress for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic River System. Most of the segments are already included in a National Wilderness Preservation System, so the council agreed the streams are already sufficiently protected. Adding another designation to the streams would only increase the need for resources to maintain the areas, the letter says. The Forest Service started examining which river segments could be included in the Wild and Scenic River System about a year ago, but public comments on the proposed segments were gathered at a series of public meetings in May. During that time, the executive council of MAG, which is made up of mayors and county leaders from the three counties, expressed concern about the possibility of having some of the rivers in their area receive the designation. Currently, Utah doesn't have any rivers included in the system....
Feds favor culling elk herd near St. Helens he U.S. Forest Service is proposing limited elk hunts in three areas around Mount St. Helens to control the size of the herd. According to Tom Mulder, manager of the Mount St. Helens National Monument, the proposal would allow a limited number of Washington State master hunter program graduates to harvest elk with special permits. The permits would be issued by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in coordination with the Forest Service. The three areas, which are within the boundaries of the Loowit game management unit, could be open for hunting by the fall of 2008. The number of permits that would be issued has not been determined. A critic of the state's elk management practices near the volcano called the move a good first step toward reducing winter kill and keeping the herd healthier. "It is wise for them to allow hunting in the area," said state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama....
Governors back blue ribbon fire task force On Friday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his intention to take a closer look at wildfire prevention in the Lake Tahoe Basin, with the formation of a California-Nevada Joint Blue Ribbon Task Force. The task force will undertake a "comprehensive review of land management practices associated with conditions that contributed to the devastating Angora fire," according to a press release from the Governor's office. Gibbons was not immediately available for comment on Monday, although Brent Boynton, a spokesman for his office, said the task force is in its infancy and members are being chosen this week. Membership will focus on those with fire management expertise and is likely to include local fire officials, according to Boynton. While neither of the governors' offices would spell out the agencies baring the brunt of the review, California Senator Dave Cox cast a wide net in a June 29 letter, urging the governors to create the task force. "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. Many feel that the requirements and regulations that have been put in place by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) and the U.S. Forest Service have made the process of creating defensible space both cumbersome and costly," Cox wrote in the letter. "Further, I frequently hear from constituents who gladly abide by the 100 foot defensible space requirement, but are frustrated by the fact that adjoining lands owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), California State Parks and the federal government do not meet the same requirements."....
Supervisors ask feds to clear lands As fire consumed 66,000 acres in California Tuesday, it dominated much of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors' meeting. The board pleaded in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management to reduce wood fuels on 17,000 acres of its property in Nevada County to help defend the county from flames. "The citizens see all this furor over fires and wonder why BLM can't clean up their own properties - or at least allow the public to get on the land and do it," Supervisor Hank Weston said. "While our citizens are required by the state of California to clear fire fuels at least 100 feet from their residences, they do not see BLM complying with these same regulations," Weston wrote in the board-approved letter. "In many cases, BLM parcels that are choked with flammable vegetation lie less than 100 feet from residential neighborhoods located in the outlying areas." The BLM lands are scattered throughout the county, but much of it is located in the South Yuba and Bear River watersheds....
Kane, Garfield to appeal ruling on road ownership Less than two weeks after a federal judge rejected Kane and Garfield counties' claims on roads in a national monument, the two county commissions have decided to appeal the ruling. Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said the commissions decided on the move during a closed-session conference call Monday, believing the ruling's requirement to take each road claim to court separately is too great a burden. Habbeshaw said the counties' attorney will file a notice of the impending appeal this week. The appeal would argue U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins' June 29 opinion goes against case law and congressional intent on how to determine ownership of the roads that crosshatch the 1.8 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the commissioner said. Jenkins dismissed the lawsuit, ruling Kane and Garfield counties can't autonomously claim ownership of roads or 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, the ruling said. Further, until the counties prove ownership under legally required "quiet title" action, the lawsuit is premature, the judge said. Jenkins' ruling reiterated an earlier federal appeals court decision that, based on Utah law, each claim had to be judged in court after a county claimed title to a road....
Regulatory 'loophole' could drive cattle herds to U.S. for slaughter Canadian ranchers who want to avoid the cost and hassle of the government's new rules to stamp out mad cow disease can send their young cattle across the U.S. border. The animals can be slaughtered under laxer American rules, then shipped back into Canada and sold as steak, ribs and hamburgers -- as long as the animal's high-risk tissues, known as specified risk materials, or SRM, are left behind in the U.S., Canadian officials say. "If they take it down there and have it slaughtered and want to bring it back cut and wrapped (as meat), no problem, just as long as it comes back without the SRM," says Freeman Libby, national director of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's feed ban task force. The agency has no objection to such cross-border traffic, Libby says, even though it highlights a gap between mad-cow rules in Canada and the U.S. The gap widens Thursday when Canada's "enhanced" feed ban goes into force. The ban requires the removal and disposal of tissues that can harbour infectious proteins, called prions, that cause mad cow disease. The Americans continue to allow the risky cattle tissues to be used, along with other slaughter waste, in chicken and pet food as well as fertilizers. While Libby doesn't see a problem with the mismatched policies in Canada and the U.S., others do....
Bovine TB concerns Richardson Members of the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Bill Richardson are concerned that federal agriculture officials appear poised to change New Mexico’s status as a bovine tuberculosis-free state since some dairy cattle in Curry County have tested positive for the disease. All dairies and ranchers in New Mexico would have to test their cattle for TB if the state’s status is lowered from a TB-free state, and the delegation and the governor believe that would violate federal regulations. “A downgrade of New Mexico’s status could cost our producers more than $4 million per year,” the delegation said Tuesday in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Michael Johanns. “We urge you to adhere to the existing regulations and maintain New Mexico’s current TB status.” New Mexico officials pointed out that the infected cattle in Curry County are located at two neighboring facilities and are under common ownership and supervision, meaning the animals should be considered a single herd under federal regulations. Under those same regulations, the governor and the delegation maintain that if the herd is destroyed and an investigation is conducted within 90 days, the state can retain its TB-free status....
New Mexico ranchers battle range caterpillars Ranchers in northeastern New Mexico want to get the upper hand on a native spiky caterpillar that has a voracious appetite. The range caterpillars began hatching earlier this month in parts of Colfax, Union, Mora and San Miguel counties. Some ranchers have embarked on a campaign to keep the caterpillars at bay with crop-dusters, pickup trucks outfitted with foggers and insecticide. They've already sprayed 108,000 acres and have at least 40,000 acres more to go. Union County extension agent David Graham says ranchers are hopeful the pre-emptive strike will keep the caterpillars from devouring pastures. Ranchers live with range caterpillars but usually to a much smaller degree. Graham classifies the latest invasion as "the worst case we've had in ten years."....