NEWS ROUNDUP


Panel looks at detail of species law A panel formed to look into how to preserve and improve sage grouse numbers and habitat in Wyoming is looking at a provision of the Endangered Species Act that may help maintain agricultural activity and oil and gas development if the sage grouse gains federal protection. The focus is on voluntary conservation efforts that qualify under the "candidate conservation agreements with assurances" provision. Essentially, private landowners who take on practices that conserve and increase sage grouse and sage grouse habitat are allowed to continue their normal operations if the bird is listed, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If those normal operations carried out under a conservation agreement result in the death of one or more sage grouse, it would not result in a violation of the Endangered Species Act. Gov. Dave Freudenthal wants to establish a conservation agreement with assurances for the entire state, said Ryan Lance, the governor's chief of staff. Lance said the idea is to convince private landowners to voluntarily enroll in the statewide agreement. If the sage grouse becomes listed, then energy developers, whether on private or federal lands, could agree to those same conservation practices....
Judge upholds elk feeding A federal judge ruled Friday against several environmental groups in their attempt to stop Wyoming's program of testing elk for brucellosis and killing those with the disease. U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson also denied the groups' request to order an environmental study of a dozen feedgrounds the state operates to help elk survive the harsh winters. Tim Preso, the attorney for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the organizations were still studying the ruling and no decision had been made on whether to appeal. "This ruling doesn't change the fact that the elk feeding in Wyoming is creating a serious disease problem and none of the federal or state agencies are addressing it," Preso said in a telephone interview Friday. But Johnson said he could not find any legal grounds to support the requests sought in the lawsuit. "None of the agencies' actions were arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, or without observance required by law," he wrote in the 66-page opinion....
Forest officials curb ATVs The U.S. Forest Service has begun imposing travel restrictions on ATVs and other off-road vehicles nationally, ending their long-standing permission to go almost anywhere. The move marks the end of the principle that forest lands are "open unless designated closed" to motor vehicles and instead establishes that they are "closed unless designated open." "People would say, 'Well, look, there's a two-track there, and it's been there for a long time,"' said Paul Cruz, recreation staff officer for the Arapahoe National Forest. "That won't work anymore. Now, the burden is on the user to have a ... map and to follow it." That means that off-road vehicles are allowed only on trails marked on new travel maps being drawn up for each national forest - in some cases excluding popular existing routes. The growing popularity of off-road vehicles has proved to be a difficult trend to control for land managers, who say the growing network of illegal trails created by wayward motor vehicles is among their biggest problems. By 2003, there were 14,000 miles of such "user-created" trails in the national forests....
'Right stuff' mentality may be a factor in wildfire deaths When five forest firefighters died in Southern California last year, investigators blamed risky decisions by managers. But the U.S. Forest Service has commissioned a study to find out if the gung-ho culture of wildland firefighters is also to blame. Firefighters, like astronauts, can share feelings of invincibility, a "right stuff" mentality that is dangerous, said University of Idaho researcher Chuck Harris, who is leading the study. "Rather than question authority, they plug ahead and believe they can beat the fire," Harris said. Some of the deadliest fires -- such as Storm King in 1994 in Colorado, which killed 14 firefighters, and the Thirtymile Fire in 2001 in Washington, which killed four -- have focused attention on the role of leadership in such situations, Harris said. The Forest Service asks its crews to fight fires and take risks, but also to focus on safety first, Harris said. That's a contradictory message....
Thinned forests slow spread of pine beetles Thinning ponderosa pines in the Black Hills is helping to slow an epidemic of mountain pine beetles, Forest Service officials say. "We know thinning is a good way to keep our forests green and healthy," Black Hills National Forest Supervisor Craig Bobzien said. Logging, non-commercial thinning and prescribed burns in dense stands of ponderosas give individual trees better access to water and nutrients, Forest Service natural resources officer Dave Thom said. Larger, healthier trees are better able to reject bug attacks. "Like humans, if they're malnourished, dehydrated and crowded they're more subject to illness," Thom said. Recent Forest Service aerial photographs show patches of reddish-brown trees killed by beetles in dense stands of timber, next to logged and thinned timber where there are no red "bug trees."....
Lawmaker says USFS hesitated in fighting fire, asks why A state legislator wants congressional follow-up on claims that a helicopter available to drop water on a wildfire north of here did not do so because the U.S. Forest Service wanted to let the fire burn. The blaze that began in July and continues to burn in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness and Beartooth Wildlife Management Area has blackened more than 43,000 acres, or about 67 square miles, and is nearing containment. Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, has asked Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to investigate the response to the Meriwether fire. Baucus spokeswoman Sara Kuban said the senator's staff will do so. Barkus said a state helicopter with a bucket to drop water on the fire was ready to fly after the fire was detected July 21, but at the request of the Forest Service the chopper did not head to the blaze. Helena National Forest Supervisor Kevin Riordan said he is comfortable with the response....
Federal mine claim holders to face new challenges Pending in Congress as we speak is legislation that, if it becomes law, will make exploration and mining on (BLM) public domain and U.S. Forest Service lands so difficult that it will be impossible for anyone to mine on them in the future. The legislation I speak of is H.R. 2262, now pending before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources. This bill was introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Rahall has been seeking to “reform” the mining law of 1872 for decades, and now he has the votes to do it. Alaska’s Congressman Don Young has been quoted as saying that he lacks the votes to amend or block this bill in the House; Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, is alleged to have said that he doesn’t have 41 votes to stop it in the Senate; and it is not at all clear that the White House would veto such a bill, especially if the votes to override are there....
Air study delays drilling plan Concerns about the cumulative impact of energy development have prompted federal officials to take a closer look at the potential effects of roughly 3,000 new gas wells on air quality in northwest Colorado. The move follows issues raised by the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver and could bolster a push by conservation groups in Wyoming for more analysis of oil and gas wells there. The Bureau of Land Management is working with the EPA on an air-quality study as part of the review of development plans for federal land in the Little Snake resource area in Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties. The study likely will delay oil and gas drilling in the area because it will push back release of the final plan, originally expected in November....
Prairie dog numbers grow Sharon Lovitt knows she has prairie dogs on her ranch. A town, or population, of the animals covering about 640 acres has been there as long as she can remember. But now that town has grown into well over 1,000 acres, she said, since the drought took hold. “They’ve never expanded like they are now,” she said. Neighbors from the far reaches of Converse County echoed her concerns over rapidly growing colonies and the ensuing ecological damage the prairie dogs wreak. Together, they’ve formed the Converse County Prairie Dog Working Group, and within that, the Pine Ridge Pilot Project, to find an ecological balance -- and a way to live with the prairie dogs. The groups come under the auspices of the Southeast Wyoming Resource Conservation and Development Council, an entity composed of representatives of the governments of Converse, Platte, Albany, Laramie and Goshen counties. Grant Stumbaugh, a Natural Resources and Conservation Service employee in Wheatland, provides guidance and support to the council. “We’ve got about a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations in the last four years (in Converse County),” Stumbaugh said. “A lot of that is attributed to the drought. As natural resource managers and people who care about the land, we strongly believe there needs to be an ecological balance. With a 30 percent increase in prairie dog populations, we feel that ecological balance is no longer there.”....
Getting inside bears' brains George Stevenson's brain appeared to be sweating, glistening on a bright red plastic picnic plate there in the heat of the day. It was big as a big man's fist, and all around it, on other picnic plates, were slivers of other brains, like so many thin-sliced neural hors d'oeuvres. Some looked like spreading river deltas, carved deep with winding channels. One looked just like an elk hoof, stuffed tight with morel mushrooms. With them on the table was a bone-white grizzly bear skull, top lopped to show inside, where Stevenson's juicy brown brain used to be. And beside that was a fully furred grizzly head, guillotined with eyes closed, ears perked up, sharp teeth curving over soft black lips. These are the grisly tools Dr. Stevenson needs for his presentation: "Grizzly Bear Brain, Central Nervous System Structures." "These bears are amazing creatures," Stevenson said. "I believe they have the most impressive olfactory system of any animal on the planet. Their nose is the very best."....
Burning Man festival begins tomorrow Protecting the environment is this year's theme for the 22nd annual Burning Man counterculture arts festival in the Black Rock Desert. In addition to solar panels powering the pavilion at the base of the man, Burners will also be able to view demonstrations of things such as bicycles with generators and gasification machines that eat trash and produce flammable gas. More than 45,000 participants are expected to converge on a 5-square-mile patch of the desert for the festival that begins Monday. Their sprawling encampment will rise up along makeshift streets staked out on the playa and arrayed in a half-moon pattern before a central, looming statue of a man, who is set on fire in wild celebration on the next-to-last night of the festival. The event ends Sept. 3....
Roundup in the Great Divide If all goes well, nearly 500 wild horses will be rounded up and removed from the range east of here, according to the Bureau of Land Management. A contract crew has been working to round up the excess horses, which are run into a trap, sorted into pens, loaded into tractor-trailers, and trucked 40 miles to the BLM horse corrals at Rock Springs, where they will later be available for adoption. The wild horses are being removed from the Great Divide Basin herd management area, a huge expanse of checkerboard land ownership north of Interstate 80, where the federal agency has determined the appropriate management level is 415 to 600 horses. With the current population estimate of more than 1,000, the herd is nearly double the level prescribed by land managers, so excess horses must be removed to achieve ecological balance, they say. An environmental assessment for the horse removal plan noted that the population has exceeded the range capacity to sustain wild horse use over the long term. About 400 horses were removed last year, but the population continues to grow....
‘Split estates’ may pit surface-rights owners against mineral-rights owners The cliché “sitting on a gold mine” might not ring true to its positive tone. Gold is just one of the many minerals in Montana that sits below the surface — sometimes deep below — and is sought after for a variety of reasons. The importance of these raw products, whether they’re gold, sapphires, oil or other natural resources, is so powerful that the right to go after them can usurp private homeowners’ rights. That’s becoming an issue in the West with gas and oil exploration, due to the number of so-called “split estates” in which a person may own the surface rights to something, but someone else buys the mineral rights. And as the price of gold, uranium and other minerals climbs, the conflicts between surface-rights owners and mineral-rights owners may also rise. “A mineral estate is the dominant estate on a split estate,” said Steve Welch, administrator for the planning and compliance division of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. “If you don’t own the mineral rights on a split estate and there’s something down there, you’re likely to see someone come in there and get it.” Split estates are fairly common in the West, being established in the early 1900s, but their roots go back to the founding of the nation....
Nevada senator urges probe in wild horse deaths Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is calling on U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to conduct a "full and thorough investigation" into the nitrate contamination deaths of 71 wild horses in July at the Tonopah Test Range. "There are strong concerns in southern Nevada that these deaths are the result of serious negligence in the management of the test range and the wild horse herds in the area," Reid wrote in a letter sent Friday to the secretary. "In light of this unfortunate event, I believe that this is also an appropriate time to take a close look at the land and wildlife management practices used on the larger Nellis Air Force Range," Reid, the Senate majority leader, suggested. The horses' carcasses were found at a watering hole about a mile from the Tonopah Test Range airfield, about 210 miles northwest of Las Vegas. A former Air Force tech sergeant told the Las Vegas Review-Journal earlier this week that when he worked at the airfield in the 1990s deicing compounds high in nitrogen routinely ran off the runway into the desert. The watering hole is on land restricted from public access....
Ruminants to the rescue A goat’s appetite for almost anything has put them in hot demand by private land owners and government agencies who want an alternative to chemicals for weed control. This summer, the ruminants cleared lands for Woodland, Rocklin, Nevada City, Nevada County and Nevada Irrigation District. “I’m so busy right now,” said Brad Fowler, a Penn Valley resident who owns The Goat Works. Fowler, who started with 150 goats two years ago, has now teamed up with a Woodland rancher. The team collectively dispatches 2,000 animals to clear lands from the foothills to Yolo County. Goats are a sustainable alternative to traditional herbicide sprays that can leach into watersheds or to heavy equipment that compacts soils....
Grasshoppers add to Eastern Oregon farming woes Eastern Oregon ranchers and farmers, already hobbled by drought and hay shortages, have a new addition to their list of woes: grasshoppers. Cory Parsons, livestock extension agent for Baker and Union counties, says what the drought missed the grasshoppers are getting, and calls it the area's worst infestation in years. Typically, he says, grasshoppers stay in the rangelands, but wildfires and drought have made rangeland forage scarce in many areas, and grasshoppers are finding food where they can, including alfalfa fields. They are less visible in sagebrush and on rangeland, but they're being noticed now. They also are eating lawns, gardens, leaves from fruit trees and pine needles. This year, the grasshopper infestation covers more than 270,000 acres in Union and Baker counties, with as many as 75 grasshoppers per square yard in the worst places....
Ranchers: Checkoff should support USA beef Recently, Terry Stokes, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Michael Kelsey, the CEO of the Nebraska Cattlemen, toured the state trying to drum up support for a 100-percent increase in the Beef Checkoff. At every stop and press opportunity, they claimed that any such increase would be driven by producers, who would then have a chance to ratify it with a vote. Well, Mr. Stokes and Mr. Kelsey, let’s take a look at how 8,000 beef producers voted in a recent survey conducted by the Gallup organization under the direction of the USDA and the Livestock Marketing Association: · Only 5.7 percent said the Checkoff should be increased; 91 percent of the respondents said it should remain at $1 (per head) or be decreased. · 92 percent said Checkoff dollars should be used to promote products from cattle specifically born and raised in the U. S. Under current rules beef can only be promoted as a generic product, with no regard to its origin. · 82.5 percent wanted a mandated periodic referendum. * 66 percent would like to see changes made in the contracting process. So it would seem the “producers” have a much different agenda in mind when it comes to managing their Checkoff contributions....
Government cowboys patrol Rio Grande to protect cattle from resurgent ticks hey're gun-toting, government cowboys who follow an unforgiving and treacherous 500-mile route along the Texas-Mexico border, their .357 Magnums, lariats and machetes well in hand. These cowboys aren't after the wave of drug smugglers or illegal immigrants who cross the border daily: They're inspectors on the lookout for border-crossing, blood-sucking parasites that feed on the region's cattle and deer – small black ticks, or garrapatas. The fever tick was all but stricken from the U.S. more than 50 years ago, after wreaking havoc on the state's beef industry. But experts warn that they are back and stronger than ever after developing a resistance to pesticides that had been used effectively for decades. And left uncontrolled, the parasites could result in losses to the beef industry of up to $1 billion a year, the experts warn. They spread a debilitating disease that destroys red blood cells. Enter the 61-person Fever Tick Force, a group of modern-day cowboys funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture who patrol a thin quarantine line along the Rio Grande....
Quality in the fibers Back when Moffat County wool was considered by some to be the king of crops in Colorado, buyers would come to the growers in Northwest Colorado and negotiate a price for their fleece. Rancher John Wellman hopes a recent resurgence of natural fibers in the clothing industry will make wool buyers appreciate the quality of the product coming from his ranch. “Wool is an excellent insulator,” he said. “It can absorb 75 percent of its weight in water without feeling wet.” The Corriedale herd on Wellman’s ranch south of Hamilton produces quality wool that is highly sought after by wool buyers. The Wellman Ranch, on the Moffat and Rio Blanco county line, began when John’s great-grandfather, Harrison Wilber Wellman, purchased the D.D. Ferguson Ranch in 1912. The elder Wellman had already filed on a nearby Milk Creek homestead, but the Ferguson ranch came up for sale and he acquired the property....
Old notebook unearths a tale that needs telling I mentioned in columns after Shoulders' death in June that the 16-time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion was one of the greatest storytellers I had ever met. So obviously I couldn't fit all the great stories he shared with me in the story I wrote in 2000. Shoulders was a worker — whether as a cowboy, a stock contractor, a rancher or a pitchman — whatever. Even when I saw him sitting in the stands, he was promoting or supporting bull riding or a rodeo. "I'm not a very good tourist,” he said in that interview. And he backed that up with story after story related to working. Here's one of those stories of the pitchman at work. Shoulders would sometimes take "Buford T,” a Brahma bull weighing about 1,900 pounds, to promotional events for Miller Lite beer. This included taking the bull inside some crowded night spots. "I'd say, ‘Excuse us,' and people would turn around kind of mad that I was being pushy,” he said. "But when they saw Buford, it was like a parting of the sea. They'd be on the pool tables or under the pool tables. We instantly had room. Buford thought he was a person.”....
Piece by piece, Hopalong Cassidy memorabilia sold A Texas antiquer went home from the Prairie Rose bankruptcy auction on Friday with a gun-toting girl's bicycle from the 1950s and a slew of other memorabilia from the Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum. The small lamps that Harry King bought for $600 each and the mechanized horse named Sandy destined for one of his grandchildren were among thousands of pieces sold from the museum's collection and scattered to the winds. That's why some people were happy to hear that a local guy had picked up the prize of the Hopalong auction: a 1949 Chevrolet panel truck that had been owned by William Boyd, the actor who played Hoppy, which Tommy Devlin snagged for his dad. The truck will be part of the family's classic-car collection in Andover, he said. It features a picture of Hoppy on the side with his horse, Topper, his gun in his hand and the words "Hopalong Cassidy" and "Hi Kids!" written on it in white rope. Horns sit on the roof....
Actors, ranchers hail Western glory Actor Clint Walker believes the Western is a way Americans can connect with their heritage. "It helps us understand the pioneer spirit and that of the miners, loggers and others who helped develop the backbone of this country," Walker said Saturday in this southwest Utah community used for decades as a backdrop for countless movies. The actor, who in the 1950s and 1960s appeared in a slew of Westerns and on the hit television series "Cheyenne," was here to sign autographs and talk to fans attending the ninth annual Western Legends Roundup. The event ended Saturday. Several thousand people descended on Kanab for the festival held to celebrate Western heritage and honor the moviemaking history of the city and the actors who for several decades beginning in the 1920s stayed in town while shooting movies in the surrounding redrock desert....
Wagons Ho! Dressed in bonnets and cowboy hats, dozens of modern-day pioneers set out Thursday on a nine-day journey from the east side of Sonora Pass to Twain Harte. The Historic Sonora Pass Wagon Train, celebrating its 10th anniversary ride, aims to reenact the wagon train crossing originally accomplished by the Clark-Skidmore expedition in 1852. Although taking a different route than the original pioneers, the wagon train will travel roughly 75 miles. "We want our grandkids to learn the history of Tuolumne County," said Willy Evans, a Twain Harte resident and creator of the initial wagon train event in 1997. "The main purpose is to educate the kids about Tuolumne County's history. They study California history, but not enough Tuolumne County history. I want them to be proud of where they live."....
It’s The Pitts: The Walking Of The Cows People in agriculture are always being urged by our government, who want a cheap food policy, to develop other sources of income on our farms and ranches. They insist the way to save small town America is through tourism. But not every urbanite is going to want to spend their vacation touring this country’s tallest grain elevators or visiting collections of rusted old farm implements. But I think I have come up with something that rubberneckers and sightseers will flock to our small towns to see. You’ve no doubt heard of Pamplona’s running of the bulls? Ever since Ernest Hemingway brought the event to the world’s attention millions of tourists have flocked to Pamplona to try and kill themselves for no apparent reason or cause. Believe it or not, the running of the bulls is a religious festival, which in retrospect seems fitting because the idiots who run with the bulls surely must say a lot of prayers. Pamplona is the historic capital of Basque country and every July the residents celebrate the San Fermin Festival by partying nonstop for over a week. The running of the bulls actually began in 1852 when the drovers who brought the bulls to the Plaza de Toros through the narrow streets of Pamplona for that night’s bullfight started running with them. Then some crazy tourists thought it looked like fun to be gored and run over by bulls and so they joined the chase. And the rest is medical history. Now here’s what I’ve been thinking. My initial idea was that prior to the NFR in Las Vegas the rodeo stock for that night’s performance would be run down the Vegas strip to the Thomas and Mack Arena. But I gave up on that idea because the rodeo animals are far too valuable and I don’t think the bus people would leave their slot machines to run with the bulls and risk losing the nickels and quarters in their buckets. Besides, Vegas doesn’t need the money and small town America does. We don’t have bullfight arenas but we do have auction markets and I thought that instead of trucking our culls to auction, once a year ranchers could drive them down Main Street to their local auction yard. Because no rancher wants to get hit by a bullock in the buttocks we’d make a few changes. Instead of running with the bulls we’d walk with the cows. That way there’d be far fewer fatalities. And less shrink!....