NEWS ROUNDUP

NASA drone aids Zaca firefighting efforts Firefighters battling the stubborn Zaca fire got an assist last week from a high-flying unmanned aircraft, NASA and Ventura County officials said Friday. NASA's Ikhana, a Predator B drone adapted for civil missions, flew over the wide-ranging fire zone once in the morning and again in the afternoon of Aug. 16, 2007 to map where the flames were heading. The fire, which has consumed more than 235,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, is 83% contained. Incident commanders said they hoped to have full containment by Sept. 7. Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper called the NASA drone a "great tool," because its sophisticated instruments captured images unseen by conventional aircraft. "It provided intelligence as to where the front was," Roper said in a fire update Friday to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. "Otherwise we would have been blinded by the smoke." Ikhana collected data on Zaca and three other wildfires while flying more than 1,200 miles over 10 hours, according to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base....
Fighting fire like a regular military ground, air war The exasperating, foot-by-foot battle to snuff out the Castle Rock fire comes close to replicating a genuine military ground war against a stubborn, human enemy. Forest Service ground firefighters are the infantry. Earth-moving tractors are armored units. Large and small aircraft and helicopters "bombing" flames and clearing the way for ground troops is the air force. The inscrutable, unpredictable enemy is the Castle Rock inferno sweeping through valley woodlands. Most apparent to residents is the air war: Fixed-wing aircraft zooming low over the flaming terrain to unload water and chemical retardant, while helicopters hover over ponds sucking up more loads of water to shower on flaming woodlands too difficult for fixed wing aircraft to reach....
Wildfires in the West: Myths and Realities One of the frequently repeated “truths” is that fires are more “destructive” than in the past due to fire suppression. By putting out fires, we are told, we have contributed to higher fuel loads in our woodlands that is the cause of the large blazes we seem to be experiencing around the West. But like any scientific fact, the more we know, the more we understand how little we really understand. While fuels are important to any blaze, the latest research is suggesting that weather/climatic conditions rather than fuels drive large blazes. In other words, you can have all the fuel in the world, but if it’s not dry enough, you won’t get a large blaze. On the other hand if you have severe drought, combined with low humidity and high winds, almost any fuel loading will burn and burn well. Despite all the rhetoric about “historic” fire seasons, including several years where more than 7-8 million acres burned, the total acreage burned today is actually quite low by historic standards. As recently as the 1930s Dust Bowl drought years, more than 39 million acres burned annually in the US. And long term research going back thousands of years suggests that the past 50-70 years may be real anomalies in terms of acreage burned as well as fire severity. It may be that the limited fire activity between the 1930s and 1990s was more a reflection of moister climatic conditions than due to any effective fire suppression....
1924 was the summer of endless fires Forest fires have always been a part of the Sierra Nevada. Climate change and man’s hand on the land have changed the nature of fire in the forests. The late 1800s up to the 1920s was a time of wetter winters and cooler summers, and forests that still had many low-intensity fires. The turning point came in the 1920s when drought struck the West. In the Truckee-Tahoe area, dense new-growth forests, now containing more white fir than pine, had grown after extensive logging of the 1800s and could now fuel hotter, larger fires. The winter of 1923-24 was a very dry one with no more than three feet of snow on Donner Summit in early March. March and April had deep powder storms that stacked up snow on the Sierra Crest, but had little moisture for the Truckee River Basin. These storms did not leave a flake for Reno, which went six months without any precipitation. The early 1920s saw a startling increase in large wildfires in California, including large ones on the west slope of the Sierra that destroyed whole watersheds of old growth forests. The year 1923 was one of fire terror in the Coastal Ranges. Fire raged through neighborhoods of Oakland and Berkeley, burning hundreds of homes. All up and down California dry forests and ranges went up in smoke and flames....
Vail creating barrier against wildfire As the color red has grown in the forest, so have Saundra Spaeh’s worries. Her home, near West Vail, is just two doors down from the forest, where as much as 90 percent of lodgepole pines are dead or dying. The mountain pine beetle epidemic has hit her neighborhood hard. Whether it’s a lightning strike or a barbecue sparking a blaze, Spaeh says she understands the risk of a destructive forest fire. So she’s grateful that town, county and the U.S. Forest Service are cooperating to create a layer of “defensible space” — a 200-to-300-foot barrier — that aims to stop the spread of a fire, either from the forest into the neighborhood or vice versa. Trees are being removed on almost 200 acres of land around Vail. Much of that work will happen this fall, and workers are already clearing a landing spot for a helicopter, which will haul out felled trees. Above Intermountain and Matterhorn in West Vail, crews will cut about 8,000 trees, starting in the next couple of weeks....
Product Could Heal Soil After Fires The millions of acres scorched by wildfires and left susceptible to mudslides can be shored up by spreading inexpensive granules that a company says will keep barren soil in place when the rainy season arrives. U.S. Forest Service scientists have been testing Encap LLC's product that bonds the clay inside soil to form a "net" to help vegetation recover. Called PAM-12, it's a synthetic chemical that looks like salt and is wrapped in recycled paper. Soil scientists have found few other ways to control large-scale erosion after a fire aside from straw, which absorbs and retains moisture like mulch but doesn't actually strengthen soil. "The concept of using soil itself to prevent erosion and establish new plant life, it's exciting," said Mike Krysiak, Encap's president and chief officer. Already this year, nearly 7 million acres have burned across the country, and about 40 fires of at least 500 acres each were raging this week, most in Montana and Idaho....
A swimming success: Recovery efforts help bring back trout Apache trout, found nowhere else in the world except the streams and lakes of eastern Arizona's high country, were the first native fish to be placed on the federal Endangered Species List. Now, thanks to the diligent work of Apache tribal fisheries' personnel and a host of other players in a cooperative effort, these yellow-gold fish may become the first to be removed from that list. The White Mountain Apache Tribe recognized more than 60 years ago that the only remaining pure populations of Apache trout lived in just a few streams on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. In 1955, all reservation streams thought to contain pure populations were closed to sport fishing and a federal, state and tribal recovery effort began. ''Initial conservation efforts were not enough,'' according to Bob David, U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist and a project leader at the National Fish Hatchery Complex in Whiteriver. ''Apache trout were categorized as 'endangered' and became federally protected in 1973. And stayed endangered for a couple of years until stocking of hatchery-reared fingerlings resumed, recovery hopes brightened, and they were upgraded to the 'threatened' category.'' They've stayed ''threatened'' for a couple of decades while recovery efforts continued, but complete restoration of the species is now close at hand....
Hearing set for plan to pump rural Nevada water to Las Vegas Decisions Tuesday by Nevada's state water engineer could mean less debate during a two-week-long hearing in February on a plan to pump billions of gallons of water from three rural valleys to booming Las Vegas. But even though issues to be discussed during the Feb. 4-15 proceedings will be limited, groups and individuals protesting the plan will be able to argue some key points - that relevant information wasn't made public and that more planning and studies are needed. And anything left out in an effort to streamline the hearings won't be "to the detriment of the (water) resource," Jason King, a deputy state water engineer, said during a conference held to plan for the hearing on the Southern Nevada Water Authority application. State Engineer Tracy Taylor dropped other issues from the proceedings because they had been discussed in detail in previous applications by SNWA for water from other rural Nevada valleys. The no-debate items include SNWA's justifying of the need to import water and its argument that it has implemented adequate conservation plans in the Las Vegas area. Taylor also won't allow any arguments that Las Vegas is big enough and that growth controls should be established....
Volunteers fight ATV bad image First there was Paul. Then there was Gary. And now, there's Dean. Since the time Rough Country Four Wheelers began volunteering in the Medicine Bow National Forest, they have retired two Forest Service employees in addition to keeping miles of road and trail open. Their third, Dean Lebeda, has been with them for about 15 years. He says the group's work has been instrumental for places like the Muddy Creek Road as well as other areas. Like many agencies, underfunding and understaffing makes it hard for Forest Service employees to keep up. Volunteers have helped ease that burden. "The Muddy Creek Road probably wouldn't be open without the work the Rough Country Club has done," he says....
Off-road Enthusiasts Hit the Highway with Protest You couldn't miss them: protesters perched on the Highway 50 overcrossings sending a message that they want to save access to off-road vehicle trails. Off-road riders are worried the government will block access to a big chunk of roads and trails in the Eldorado National Forest by early next year. "I drive motorcycles and quads. My whole family does," said protester Dennis Maloney. "They've threatened to close, right now, over half the trails and roads that we use and have access in the forest."....
The Fight to Save the Rocky Mountains In order to halt the ruination of these untamed places, a concerted effort among the citizens of Colorado must lead the way for the effort to have any real, lasting impact. Colorado Wild, an environmental outfit that focuses its energies on fighting ski hill expansions, has taken the helm and has had more success than the Vail arsonists in fighting the purveyors of unbridled expansion. Right now the group, along with Friends of Wolf Creek, are hoping to stop the construction of a 10,000 person village in the middle of the San Juan Mountains, one of the snowiest regions of Colorado. The investor for the project is Texas billionaire Billy Joe "Red" McCombs who owns the Minnesota Vikings and co-founded Clear Channel Communications. In 2005 Forbes rated McCombs one of the 400 richest Americans. The "Village at Wolf Creek" is to be constructed just below the Continental Divide, where the mighty rivers of the West divide and race to their respective homes. McCombs' vision, not unlike that of Pete Seibert and Earl Eaton who built the township near Vail, is sustained by greed and a rampant disregard for the wild. Like most capitalists, McCombs is in it for the money and status. Nothing more. Right now the fight over the blueprints for Village at Wolf Creek still remain in the courts....
Appeals court upholds Cave Rock climbing ban The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the U.S. Forest Service-imposed ban on climbing Lake Tahoe's Cave Rock. The rock formation between Glenbrook and Zephyr Cove has long been regarded as sacred by the Washoe Tribe. But its history also includes being part of the original settlers' road around the lake - first as a trestle around the rock and now in the form of two tunnels blasted through the rock as a route for Highway 50. And since the late 1980s, recreational rock climbers have considered Cave Rock one of the nation's premier climbing sites. The lawsuit by Boulder, Colo.-based The Access Fund, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting recreational climbing areas, charged Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson "abruptly and unexpectedly" banned climbing in November 2002. She made the ban permanent in 2004, citing both the historic and cultural value of the rock in the eyes of Washoe tribal members. The Access Fund said the ban is unconstitutional because it gives a religious group exclusive control over public property....
NOAA Helps Small Towns Remove Obsolete Dams An excavator breached a dam on Oregon's Calapooia River Monday at Brownsville, a small town about 20 miles north of Eugene. Soon the dam will be gone and federally listed threatened salmon will be able to swim upstream to their historic spawning grounds once more. This historic dam removal is the first project to be completed under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new Open Rivers Initiative, which provides funding and technical expertise for community-driven, small dam and river barrier removals. Under the initiative, NOAA will work with communities to remove up to 50 obsolete dams and rundown culverts across the nation each year. These projects will begin to repair river systems and also eliminate dangerous conditions that are prevalent at outdated structures....
Burning Man's icon goes up in flames, 4 days prematurely A San Francisco man was arrested on felony arson charges today after the 40-foot-tall "Man" statue whose torching is the annual highlight of the Burning Man festival in Nevada went up in flames four days early, authorities said. Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County Jail in Nevada on the arson charge and misdemeanor possession of fireworks, Sheriff Ron Skinner said. Festival organizers, meanwhile, pondered the smoldering remains of the Man and promised to rebuild the big guy in time for Saturday's regularly scheduled burn in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno. Some 40,000 people are expected to gather in the desert by this weekend for Burning Man, and Thompson said about 15,000 revelers are already at the festival site. Many were on the playa early this morning watching the lunar eclipse when the fire ignited at 2:58 a.m., according to Burning Man organizers....
Feds reconsidering prairie dogs' unprotected status The federal government will reconsider a contested decision not to place the Gunnison's prairie dog on the endangered-species list, officials announced Tuesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a public-comment period, seeking new information on the prairie dogs, which are found only in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. "We're just asking everybody if you've got any information regarding prairie-dog distribution, about threats to the prairie dogs - anything," said Diane Katzenberger, spokeswoman for the agency. The move comes after the environmental group Forest Guardians and 73 other plaintiffs reached a settlement last month in their suit over the agency's decision not to put the prairie dogs on the endangered-species list. "The Gunnison's prairie dog desperately needs federal protection if it is to be spared from extinction," prairie-dog biologist Con Slobodchikoff said in a statement after the settlement. The Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the prairie-dog population has declined by 97 percent because of poisoning and shooting, sylvatic plague and habitat destruction....
Endangered-species suit planned An environmental organization served notice Tuesday that it intends to sue a federal agency over 55 endangered species in 28 states and seek restoration of 8.7 million acres of protected habitat. The suit includes two birds found in Western Washington: the marbled murrelet and the Western snowy plover. The Center for Biological Diversity said its formal notice of intent to sue the Interior Department is the starting point for the largest legal action in the history of the 34-year-old Endangered Species Act. The action accuses the federal government of illegally removing one animal from the endangered-species list, refusing to put three animals on the list and proposing to downgrade or remove protection from seven others. In addition, it contends that the government's actions stripped protection from 8.7 million acres of critical habitat for a range of plant and animal species from Texas to Washington state. The Tucson-based center claims that Bush administration appointees made the decision based on politics and not science....
Officials say island is on way to recovery after 5,036 pigs killed Thousands of wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island that destroyed plants and dug up Chumash archaeological sites over the years have been killed in one of the largest pig eradication projects in the world. Officials announced Tuesday that 5,036 pigs were systematically killed in a $5 million, two-year effort to restore the island to its natural state. "This is a huge milestone," said Kate Faulkner, chief of natural resources for Channel Islands National Park, which co-owns Santa Cruz Island with The Nature Conservancy. More than 150 years ago, farmers ferried pigs to the area as they tried to eke out an existence on California's largest island. Over the years, the pigs escaped from their pens, bred with non-native wild boars and settled into a life of rooting through the vast grasslands for acorns and grubs hidden underneath an array of plants — some found nowhere else on earth....Almost $1,000 per pig? That's a "huge milestone" alright.
A $27 Million Plan For Ivory Billed Woodpecker As inconclusive but tantalizing evidence has mounted that the elusive ivory billed woodpecker still lives in the southeastern swamps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed its first-ever recovery plan for the endangered species. It was listed as endangered 40 years ago, and was even then widely believed to be extinct. That changed when a Cornell University team published an account of seeing the bird in 2004 — prompting an aggressive annual search for evidence that the bird still lives. The plan calls for $27 million, primarily to continue looking for the bird and to understand where and how it lives so that appropriate conservation efforts can be planned. No conclusive evidence has emerged that the bird exists, but a growing number of anecdotal sightings by experienced birders have provided enough evidence that the effort is worthwhile, according to the recovery plan. The dearth of information about the bird, however, prevents the production of a more detailed recovery plan, the likes of which are produced for other endangered species....
Horse killed by wolves A Department of Natural Resources wolf expert confirmed Wednesday that a horse found dead in Kimball earlier this month was killed by wolves. Adrian Wydeven, of Park Falls, a DNR mammalian ecologist, said the death was listed as a "probable wolf kill." Investigators from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services conducted an examination at the scene and an autopsy on the horse was later performed, he noted. The animal, owned by Gene Milewski of Ironwood, had been a top racing horse at one time. It was about 20 years old. Milewski raced horses at the Gogebic County Fair in Ironwood for many years. Wydeven said the owner of the property where the horse was killed has been issued a wolf kill shooting permit and a federal trapper is working that area....
U.S. appeals court OKs Canada beef imports A U.S. appeals court gave the green light on Tuesday to continued Canadian beef and cattle imports, rejecting a rancher group's effort to impose a ban amid mad cow disease concerns. The Montana-based Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) argued that live Canadian cattle posed a risk of mad cow disease to the U.S. cattle herd and should be banned. "Having reviewed the merits of this case, we conclude that the agency considered the relevant factors and articulated a rational connection between the facts found and its decision to designate Canada a minimal-risk country," Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall wrote for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "R-CALF's extra-record evidence has failed to convince us that the agency's review was unauthorized, incomplete, or otherwise improper," Judge Hall wrote. The decision went point by point through R-CALF's arguments but found fault in them. "The agency -- at the time it made its decision -- properly relied on studies from both the World Organization for Animal Health and the Harvard Center on Risk Analysis finding that feed bans were the most effective way to prevent the spread of BSE," the court wrote. "It bears repeating that the agency did not assume 100 percent effectiveness of its measures."....
Copper thefts hit farms hard, rising metal prices fuel surge Twice this spring, metal thieves trespassed onto Gary Barton's walnut ranches in the Central Valley, yanked out the copper connecting his irrigation pumps to the power poles, and drove off with thousands of dollars worth of scrap metal. In all, Barton says he's had to spend more than $10,000 repairing and replacing the copper wiring for the seven vandalized pumps. And he considers himself fortunate—other farmers have lost entire crops and had to shell out much more to stay in business. Metal thefts have been on the rise as prices have skyrocketed, and copper thefts are hitting farmers in California and throughout the country particularly hard. Commonly used in electrical wiring, and included in motors for pumps and tractors and other farm machinery, copper is everywhere in agricultural operations and is an increasingly juicy target for thieves, selling for around $3.50 a pound, a more than 400 percent increase from 2001, fueled in part by demand from a building boom in China....