NEWS ROUNDUP

Red faces at NASA over climate-change blunder In the United States, the calendar year 1998 ranked as the hottest of them all – until someone checked the math. After a Toronto skeptic tipped NASA this month to one flaw in its climate calculations, the U.S. agency ordered a full data review. Days later, it put out a revised list of all-time hottest years. The Dust Bowl year of 1934 now ranks as hottest ever in the U.S. – not 1998. More significantly, the agency reduced the mean U.S. "temperature anomalies" for the years 2000 to 2006 by 0.15 degrees Celsius. NASA officials have dismissed the changes as trivial. Even the Canadian who spotted the original flaw says the revisions are "not necessarily material to climate policy." But the revisions have been seized on by conservative Americans, including firebrand radio host Rush Limbaugh, as evidence that climate change science is unsound. Said Limbaugh last Thursday: "What do we have here? We have proof of man-made global warming. The man-made global warming is inside NASA ... is in the scientific community with false data."....
Environmentalists run a real Western ranch, and help heal the land John Heyneman wants everyone to know at least this much about the ranches he's running north of the Grand Canyon for a pair of conservation groups: "We're real ranchers, not a bunch of cowboys out here reading [poetry] or singing to the animals," says Heyneman, who is raising and grazing more than 1,000 head of cattle on the picturesque Kaibab Plateau and the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument just south of the Utah-Arizona line. "The cowboying we do is as real as anywhere in the country." And, to Heyneman, any talk otherwise is just so much bull. After all, cattle are cattle - even if they are "green cows." The Conservation Fund and Grand Canyon Trust bought the Kane and Two-Mile ranches - and the accompanying 860,000 acres of federal grazing permits - in September 2005 for $4.5 million. The price tag included 1,000 acres of deeded property and a ranch house, where Theodore Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill once stayed. The two ranches - now combined under the moniker North Rim Ranch - aim to blend multiple-land use, including livestock grazing, with land-restoration efforts....
Battle looms over water quality Ken Valentine's popularity took a nose dive last year when he began speaking out about water from coal-bed methane wells being dumped into the Apishapa River. The Las Animas County rancher believed the water was tainting the Apishapa with salt and managed to persuade fellow farm-club members to write to the state health department. The club later rescinded that letter, saying Valentine, a former club director, had misled them and that the energy industry - primarily Irving, Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. - was helping local farms and ranches, not hurting them. "The biggest problem with the Valentines is that they just don't want Pioneer on their land," said Tom Verquer, the club's current president. The farm-club spat is one sign of the growing tension among landowners in the Raton Basin over coal-bed methane development. ust like the Powder River basin in Wyoming, the Raton is home to ranchers who, for almost a decade, have been receiving coal-bed methane water for their livestock and to replenish streams used by the deer and elk valued by hunters....
Off-road mapping program takes on a sense of urgency Many off-road fans in Colorado are involved in an extensive program to map and identify their favorite roads and trails. In November 2005, the U.S. Forest Service introduced a regulation for recreational motor-vehicle use in national forests and grasslands. The "travel-management policy" requires every road, trail and area open to motor vehicles to be identified and designated on a map. The process, expected to take four years, is occurring in all 155 national forests and 20 grasslands. When the process is complete, each unit will publish a motor-vehicle-use map. There's a sense of urgency among those who drive off-road. "If we don't identify these roads, we could lose them," off-road fan Peter Belsky said. Once the roads and trails are identified and mapped, motor-vehicle use off the roads and outside the areas will be banned....
Off-road driving is one of America's fastest-growing trends in recreation But even more than his Jeep, Belsky loves the outdoors. "I can't get enough of it," he said. He gets as much as he can by driving his beloved Jeep on trails and roads throughout Colorado nearly every weekend. "I love it," he said. "You can see in a day of four-wheeling what you wouldn't see in a week of hiking." Belsky, entering his senior year at the University of Denver and president of the DU Off-Road Club, is hooked on four-wheeling. He was drawn to it for several reasons - that getting out in nature thing, his love of cars, and something else: "I've met some of my best friends through four-wheeling." The enterprising student isn't alone in his love of four- wheeling. You don't need to look further than the traffic heading to the mountains to realize off-road driving is one of the fastest-growing trends in recreation. A survey conducted by the U.S. Forest Service in 2004 showed nearly 48 million Americans turned their SUVs, ATVs and motorcycles off the pavement onto trails and roads on public lands that year. Nearly 2 million of those drivers headed to trails and backcountry roads in Colorado....
BLM keeping eye on competitive kayaking It was only a few weeks ago that a couple of us unwitting scofflaws stumbled over the dark side of the legal line, though, deciding it might be fun to paddle our kayaks in a head-to-head, um, "chase" to the bottom of the Gore Canyon section of the upper Colorado River near Kremmling. It was only yesterday that I discovered such race-like pursuits are not only frowned upon by the BLM, they can be quite expensive. To the tune of up to $1,000 in fines, not to mention jail time. "Competition is not a gray area. It's spelled out very clearly," Windsor explained. "If two people are competing, it's a race. If one person is competing against an established record, it's a race. Without a Special Recreation Permit (SRP), it's a violation of federal code. That's written in our guidance policy." That code may very well be put to the test this weekend, the traditional date of the annual Gore Canyon whitewater raft and kayak race that for the first time in recent history cannot be conducted legally because of the lack of the requisite SRP. Whether some facsimile of the more than 15-year tradition will be conducted at all remains to be seen. But rest assured that Windsor and the remainder of the BLM's Kremmling Field Office will be watching....
Feds Exempt 258 Million Acres From Environmental Review In a move decried by environmentalists, the Bureau of Land Management today exempted certain forestry, grazing, oil and gas, and recreation projects from environmental reviews if private interests propose project son 258 million acres of BLM lands. Environmentalists had opposed the two-year-old proposal, which was enacted today by James L. Caswell, who was confirmed by the Senate as the new BLM director Aug. 6. The expansion of the number of so-called “categorical exclusions” for certain forestry, grazing, oil and gas, and recreation activities means that those actions no longer need to undergo environmental review by the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The act requires a thorough review of federal decisions, so that any potential environmental damage can be prevented or mitigated. According to the Bureau of Land Management, the new categorical exclusions will “improve efficiency of environmental reviews.”....
Agent Green August is the peak of the wildfire season in the Western United States. Last year, over 8 million acres had burned by the end of the month, and this year you can expect the evening news to be filled with even more tragic stories about wildfires spreading across the West, devouring people and property. Who’s to blame? Fingers often point to the federal government’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which controls over 250 million acres of public lands, an eighth of the nation’s total land area. Perhaps that’s why the BLM recently announced new measures to prevent wildfires. The risk is that in calling for increased use of herbicides to control the growth of vegetation, the federal agency courts legal action by extremist environmental groups. Currently, BLM treats a mere 300,000 acres with herbicides to halt the spread of invasive vegetation—more commonly known as weeds. Weeds, particularly those that are not native to the area, are a constant threat. They degrade soil productivity and choke waterways, deprive livestock of food, crowd out native plant species and, perhaps worst of all, increase the risk of wildfires. Weeds on western public lands are estimated to be spreading at the alarming rate of over 2,300 acres per day....
Two years, two crashes: Latest aerial-hunting accident leads to GF&P review Looking back on those tense moments before the crash, Tony DeCino still doesn't know how things went so wrong so fast. The airplane was running fine. The wind was light. A low pass over the brown pastures of the Cheyenne River breaks put him and gunner Dan Turgeon within 50 yards of the furry targets below. And the 12-gauge shotgun bucked repeatedly against Turgeon's shoulder, firing clusters of heavy steel shot that sent two coyotes tumbling into the grass. To that point, it was a perfect run. "We'd killed both coyotes. We'd already pulled up, cleared the terrain and were in a descent to go back and check on the animals," DeCino said. "Over the course of a couple of seconds, things changed from perfectly fine to me trying to maneuver that airplane and us being in the dirt."....
Former E. Idaho elk rancher charged with violating private game rules A former Idaho elk rancher is facing more than $55,000 in fines for allegedly violating rules governing private hunting preserves. The Idaho Department of Agriculture is charging Rex Rammell with a series of infractions related to the way he operated his business between 2004 and 2006. The agency issued a 10-page order Friday. It accuses Rammell of not filing annual inventory reports, illegally transporting quarantined elk and neglecting to notify state officials when more than 100 elk escaped his pens near Rexburg last year. Rammell says the order is a response to a lawsuit he filed against the state earlier this year....
Pinedale raises concern about BLM drilling plan Pinedale, the town at the heart of western Wyoming's gas boom, doesn't support the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's preferred plan for gas drilling in the region over the next 15 to 20 years, environmentalists pointed out Tuesday. Town officials confirmed their concerns about the plan, saying they are especially worried about maintaining the long-term viability of the upper Green River Basin's gas industry. Drilling too much too quickly, they said, could perpetuate economic swings and hinder efforts to diversify the local economy beyond gas and oil. Comments the town has submitted to the BLM also said the BLM hasn't sufficiently considered the socio-economic effects of more drilling, such as increased traffic. The town's comment letter said downtown Pinedale is getting too much gas-related truck traffic as is. "It is the worst place imaginable for oversized industrial traffic," the letter said....
Blazes stretch firefighting resources in West Helicopters, air tankers and other resources are in short supply as wildfires continue to scorch the bone-dry West. Fire managers say they're sharing the best they can, but the onerous task of prioritizing the nation's largest fires and doling out resources falls on the shoulders of seven people who meet twice daily in an Idaho conference room. Known as the National Multi-Agency Coordination Group, its members represent federal land agencies like the Forest Service, as well as state foresters and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They look at everything from the size and danger of the fires to the weather forecast. It's a delicate balance, and one that's increasingly difficult as fire seasons start early and last longer, with available resources shrinking due to tight budgets, military conflicts and other issues....
State, feds target bison Jackson wildlife managers say they are anxious to start a bison hunt that could cull the local bison herd by 25 percent this year. Killing bison, they say, is an essential part of restoring habitat and helping prevent diseases in the Jackson Elk Herd. The statements came a day after Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the federal government to help lift an injunction against bison hunting on the National Elk Refuge so the state can proceed with its planned bison hunt this fall. In a letter dated Aug. 10, Freudenthal asks Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to help appeal to a federal court. “While we, like the Fish and Wildlife Service, believe that the number of bison on the National Elk Refuge needs to be reduced to protect this environmentally-sensitive area, we are unwilling to risk being found in contempt for going forward with actions that are presently prohibited by a federal court order,” Freudenthal wrote. “At some point in the not-too-distant future, bison numbers on the NER will grow so high that a reduction to management quotas will result in a political backlash.” This spring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which runs the refuge, issued the 605-page environmental impact statement for a program to reduce numbers of both elk and bison through increased hunting. The plan would call for bison hunting as early as Aug. 25....
U.S.-Mexico discussions will tackle Colorado River issues The United States and Mexico have agreed to discuss a range of issues surrounding the Colorado River, a key water source for both nations, the U.S. Interior Department said Monday. U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne released a joint U.S.-Mexico statement saying the discussions would include the effects of climate change and drought; urban, agricultural and environmental water needs in both nations; wildlife habitat in the Colorado River Delta; and such programs as sea-water desalination to augment supplies. The statement said existing treaties should be used to "expedite discussions in coming weeks." Moody said Kempthorne and Mexico's ambassador to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, directed their technical staffs to draw up an agenda, and it would be up to those two groups to establish the outlines of the issues. The Colorado River and its tributaries supply water to Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming....
Home Again on the Kitchen Range ON fancy china and in hot dog rolls and burger buns, buffalo is finally coming of age as an alternative red meat. But it almost didn’t happen. The first time buffalo ranching took off, in the 1990s, the public wasn’t ready. People wanted only the fancy steaks and burgers; the other cuts were seen as tough and gamy, and producers couldn’t give them away. In 2000 the market collapsed. Bulls that had sold for $2,100 were going for $500. The producers who held on until 2003 found a different climate as sales began to perk up. By then many Americans had started looking at their food with a more critical eye, and they were ready for buffalo, also called American bison. Today buffalo meat, shunned no longer, has achieved an enviable position: simultaneous praise from chefs, nutritionists and environmentalists. At last, steak without guilt....
Crocs trap Australian rancher up tree for a week An Australian rancher described Tuesday how he spent a week up a tree in a remote crocodile-infested swamp as maneaters stalked him -- after he fell off his horse. The manager of the Silver Plains cattle station in the far northeast Cape York peninsular, David George, said he watched crocodiles' eyes glowing red beneath him for seven nights before he was rescued by helicopter. "Every night I was stalked by two crocs who would sit at the bottom of the tree staring up at me," George told Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper. "All I could see was two sets of red eyes below me and all night I had to listen to a big bull croc bellowing a bit further out." "I'd yell out at them, 'I'm not falling out of this tree for you bastards'." George, 53, said his nightmare began when he was thrown by his horse. Dazed and bleeding, he climbed back into the saddle and gave the animal its head, expecting it to take him home. But later, in the pre-dawn darkness, he realized it had taken him more than a kilometer into the heart of a crocodile swamp....