NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service revises plan after ruling The Forest Service on Thursday proposed rules for managing 193 million acres of national forests, responding to a court ruling that tossed out policies giving forest managers great discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects. The Forest Service said the new rules would make land management plans more adaptable to changing conditions while ensuring continued public involvement in the nation's 155 national forests. But environmentalists said the Bush administration was again trying to strip important protections for wildlife and clean water, despite a court order rejecting its approach. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell, who took over the job earlier this year, said the rules would allow the Forest Service to protect the environment in an efficient and inclusive manner. The plan includes a draft environmental impact statement with five alternatives that officials said would strengthen the role of science in forest management and allow more public involvement in the planning process....
Editorial - Politicos should stop playing politics with Piñon Canyon Since it was first initiated, we have paid careful attention to the Army’s proposal to increase the size of the Piñon Canyon maneuver site from 235,000 acres to more than 600,000 acres. Those opposed to the expansion say that the Army is overreaching, that a quarter of a million acres is more than enough for training purposes. They also are dismayed, and rightfully so, by the prospect of forcing hundreds of ranching families off lands that, in many cases, have been passed down from generation to generation. The Army, pointing to the changing nature of combat operations, contends that it needs the additional space to train the men and women who may, in years and decades to come, be charged with defending our country’s vital interests in distant and hostile lands. Modern weapons systems greatly extend the reach and complexity of small-unit operations, necessitating the expansion....
Prairie dog settlement a possibility Under a veil of secrecy, it appears a settlement in the very public Logan County lawsuit over prairie dogs is in the offing. But because the negotiations are taking place in private, few details have emerged. As a result, Tuesday's trial still officially is on the docket. What is known is that defendants in the lawsuit -- ranchers who favor keeping prairie dogs so federal wildlife officials can reintroduce the black-footed ferret, the nation's most endangered mammal -- will make some small concessions. "We're going to agree to a couple things," said Larry Haverfield, one of the defendants in the lawsuit. "And they're going to drop the case." The defendants in the case will admit they were notified by the Logan County Commission that the prairie dogs have been a nuisance. They also will have to admit they didn't object to the notice. In return, Logan County, which filed the lawsuit, will give at least two days notice in the event the county decides to enter on the land and begin the poisoning process. That presumably would then give the landowners time to go to court and obtain a restraining order to stop the poisoning....
Avoiding the Next 1910 Some still insist these conditions are “natural,” nature righting human interference. Well, that’s hooey. The history and reality of landscape fire, as PhD anthropologist Bob Zybach of Corvallis, Ore., explains, is that “aboriginals found throughout the world […] over great lengths of time, had found ways to manage vegetation to benefit their existence. The burns were to provide safety from animals and people, to keep wildfire from killing them, to provide vigor and health in plants that gave them food or fiber.” Face it, folks … the landscape we live in, even the wildernesses we have set aside, are a social construct, a social artifact stemming from human decisions to act, or not act. It is time to act. We are experiencing earlier starts, longer durations, and higher intensities, to the point where we, despite throwing billions of dollars away, are helpless – not before “Nature’s wrath” – but as a consequence of our own foolishness. The only way from here on out to fight fire, and the loss of good habitat, clean air, clean water, fine wood, all sorts of forest “benefits” to our “existence,” is to act preemptively year round, using prescribed fires in combination with, you betcha, logging....
Threat of bears shuts down glacier trail The threat from bears has shut down a popular trail in southeast Alaska. The U.S. Forest Service has temporarily closed a substantial section of the Steep Creek Trail at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. Wayne Ward, assistant director of the visitor center, said yesterday it has become impossible to ensure the safety of visitors and the bears. Portions of the popular bear viewing area and trail surrounding the sockeye and coho spawning grounds could remain closed for the rest of the season. However, the viewing platform adjacent to the parking lot and a main section of the raised walkway above the creek remain open....
Wildfire closes in on famous Yellowstone resort Firefighters prepared today to protect a historic lodge in the path of a wildfire that has spread outside Yellowstone National Park. Large sprinklers were set up around Pahaska Tepee Resort, part of which was built by Buffalo Bill Cody in 1904, and co-owner Angela Coe expected to evacuate soon. She was among the last people still at the smoke-choked resort. "I'm seriously concerned," she said. The resort's last guests left Tuesday and nearly all staff left Wednesday, when a pre-evacuation order was issued for an eight-mile-long area east of the park. About 100 structures are in that area, including the resort and the Buffalo Bill Boy Scout Camp....
BLM 'sets bar higher' for grouse The Bureau of Land Management is offering energy companies a trade-off in the Powder River Basin: Don’t drill in high-quality sage grouse habitat, and the land management agency will prioritize drilling permits elsewhere. “This is not a prohibition. We’re just setting the bar higher,” said Steven Hall, spokesman for the agency. A Wednesday press release from the BLM said decisions about new energy development in high-quality sage grouse habitat will consider recent peer-review findings on the impacts of energy development on sage grouse. Earlier this summer, the BLM accepted the results of more than five years of studies performed by University of Montana researchers, headed by professor David Naugle....
Gov: Order prevents bison hunt Gov. Dave Freudenthal has called on the federal government to resolve legal issues blocking the state from holding a bison hunt on the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole. Freudenthal wrote to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne last week. The governor stated that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has asked the state Game and Fish Department to hold a hunt on the refuge to reduce the bison population. In response to a lawsuit filed by the Fund for Animals, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., barred the federal government in 1998 from allowing the killing of bison at the refuge. The judge agreed that the federal agencies had failed to conduct adequate environmental analysis. Freudenthal said he's concerned that the federal court order may still be in effect. He said he doesn't want the state or any hunters held in contempt of court....
Uranium mining fuels jump in claims in West Metals-mining claims on Western federal lands jumped by 80 percent in the past 4 1/2 years, some popping up near popular national parks. Overall metals-mining claims rose from 207,540 in January 2003 to 376,493 last month, two advocacy and research organizations said Thursday, based on their review of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management records. Higher prices for gold and copper and renewed interest in uranium exploration, mainly because of global demand for nuclear power, helped fuel the jump. Between 2004 and 2006, four states - Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming - saw uranium-mining claims rise from 4,300 to 32,000, the Environmental Working Group and the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining reported....
Judge rejects salmon lawsuit A federal judge ruled the government does not have to count hatchery salmon along with wild fish when deciding whether to protect a species. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene denied a lawsuit brought by property rights advocates, farm groups and development interests against NOAA Fisheries. It challenged all 16 listings of West Coast salmon in Washington, Oregon and California under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit claimed the government was playing a "shell game" by counting only the natural population to determine listings, harming the economy by restricting development and agriculture to protect salmon habitat. "In the absence of a challenge to (NOAA Fisheries') scientific conclusions, the ESA does not require that protective regulations treat natural populations and hatchery stocks equally," Hogan wrote in the ruling issued late Monday. Sonya Jones, an attorney for Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents plaintiffs, said they were disappointed, particularly because in 2001 Hogan ruled in favor of their argument that NOAA Fisheries could not protect wild Oregon coastal salmon as a threatened species if it did not protect hatchery fish in the same population group. "We believe this is an unlawful interpretation of the way the hatchery policy was applied to these 16 populations," Jones said of the latest ruling. "We will be appealing it."....
Plan would allow farmers to kill wolves caught attacking livestock Farmers could kill wolves caught in the act of attacking their livestock under a proposed management plan released Thursday that addresses Michigan's resurgent gray wolf population. The state Department of Natural Resources' draft plan also suggests a permitting process so livestock producers could handle wolves on their property after an attack on livestock has been verified. The proposal largely mirrors an earlier report from an advisory panel that agreed there should be no specific wolf population targets and endorsed killing wolves that prey on livestock if non-lethal methods fail. The DNR's wildlife division was scheduled to present the draft plan to the Natural Resources Commission Thursday afternoon in Lansing. States now have responsibility for keeping wolf numbers at healthy levels because the federal government plans to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list....
Reward Money Hits $9,000 In Wolf Shooting Conservation groups are offering a $4,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person who shot and killed a wolf that migrated into northeastern Oregon. The reward comes on top of $5,000 offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The female gray wolf - protected as an endangered species - was found last May outside Elgin. It had apparently crossed the Snake River from Idaho, where packs were introduced in 1995 and 1996. Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild and Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity say the shooting highlights the need to maintain federal protection for wolves, a key to restoring healthy ecosystems, despite efforts to take them off the endangered species list....
States petitioned on ocean acidification A conservation organization has requested that Alaska and six other states add bodies of water to their list of impaired waterways: the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The Center for Biological Diversity, based in San Francisco, requested that Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii list the Pacific Ocean as impaired under the federal Clean Water Act. The group wants New York, New Jersey and Florida to list the Atlantic. The reason: ocean acidification, the changing of sea water chemistry because of absorption of carbon dioxide produced by humans. A center attorney, Miyoko Sakashita, said listing the oceans as impaired under the Clean Water Act would allow states to set limits on the discharge of pollutants. The ocean's absorption of CO2 is quietly and lethally altering its fundamental chemistry, Sakashita said. "We must act now to prevent global warming's evil twin, ocean acidification, from destroying our ocean ecosystems," she said....
Land swap ends in condemnation at state park Last week, in an effort to lock up a piece of land in their newest state park, Oregon Parks Department officials took a dramatic step they’d not taken for nearly three decades: they severed a local logger’s timber rights. The drastic move, using what’s known as eminent domain, was an attempt to stop logging in the department’s 1,650-acre L.L. “Stub” Stewart State Park near Vernonia. But for Banks timber man Jim Smejkal – who signed over 113 acres of timber land for the creation of the park but maintained logging rights on the land until last week – the move left him feeling he’d been the target of a bait and switch....
A beastly crime wave The buzzards led Nick Bursio to his prized calf. He found the body just over a rise in the field, with a bullet hole in its left shoulder, near the heart. Bursio had heard of animals killed by rustlers for their meat. But not until that May morning had he ever imagined anything so senseless as shooting cattle presumably just to watch them die. "I had a hollow feeling in my gut, to see that dead calf laying there, with the mother cow bellowing nearby," said the Sonoma County rancher. "I thought, what the hell's going on in this place?" Authorities are searching for a drive-by shooter who guns down cows as they calmly munch grass in the rolling pastureland 50 miles north of San Francisco. Since February, five cows have been found dead in two counties, shot with small-caliber bullets designed to inflict prolonged pain and suffering. Nationwide, an increasing number of animal cruelty cases are being reported outside city limits: Horses, cows, goats and other farm animals are being killed, authorities say, often by angry, reckless youths, perhaps acting on dares....
UK eases foot and mouth curbs after negative tests Britain said on Wednesday it would ease restrictions on livestock movements and was likely to stand down vaccination teams after initial tests for foot and mouth disease at a farm and theme park proved negative. Authorities sealed off a farm in Kent, southern England, and Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo, a theme park in nearby Surrey, on Tuesday because of suspicions of foot and mouth. But Britain's Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said preliminary tests had found no foot and mouth at either site. The latest report on the outbreak concludes the risk of the disease spreading outside the infected area in Surrey is now "very low," Reynolds told a news conference. "Tests from both places are negative," an agriculture ministry spokesman said....
Contaminated water kills dozens of bison Livestock are dying by the dozens in a ranching area southwest of Saskatoon because of blue-green algae flourishing in the water. This uncanny occurrence has left Wiseton and Dinsmore area ranchers scrambling to deal with the dilemma. Area rancher Ivan Thomson said about 40 of his bison have died from drinking contaminated water, with the first fatality occurring about two weeks ago. It's primarily the breeding bulls and the heavier milking females that are perishing, he said. "They're more active, so their systems require more moisture. They drink more water, then bang," he said. Thomson has moved his livestock to different pastures, but he's been finding blue-green algae sometimes pops up in water he thought was safe. Some of his bison have died within 30 minutes of ingesting the water -- sometimes while they're still standing in a water body -- while others have lived nearly two days after, he said....
Better Mad Cow Test Scientists have taken a big step towards a quick, sensitive test for the proteins that go haywire in mad-cow disease. Because people or animals can be infected for years without showing symptoms, the researchers say developing a better test will be key to preventing a silent epidemic. Right now, the only method that blood banks have for keeping deadly mad cow disease (called variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, or vCJD ) out of the blood supply is with donor questionnaires. National Institutes of Health researcher Byron Caughey has been searching for a better way for more than a decade....
EEE Hitting Louisiana Horses Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) has caused the deaths of eight horses in Lafourche Parish, La. Veterinarians also suspect the virus in two additional cases of equine illness. Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Bob Odom released a statement Aug. 3 on the mosquito-borne virus' emergence in the state. "Since there is no cure for Eastern equine encephalitis [only supportive care], I am urging horse owners to vaccinate their animals," Odom said. "This is a very preventable disease, but often horse owners wait until it's too late." The progression of EEE is swift and ugly. Affected horses will struggle with muscle tremors, weakness, and staggering gaits, and they might circle aimlessly or tilt their heads at odd angles. Horses that have not been vaccinated for EEE should have two doses of the vaccine given about two weeks apart. An annual booster protects horses that have been vaccinated. Odom noted that veterinarians in Louisiana should report any suspected case of equine neurologic encephalitis. Eastern equine encephalitis is of special interest to veterinarians and human health authorities, as the virus can also infect humans. The virus cannot pass directly from horses to humans (mosquitoes are required to transmit it to mammals from infected birds), but horses can act as sentinels to alert public health officials that the virus is present in the area. There is no vaccine for humans....