NEWS ROUNDUP

Western fires stir embers of 'Sagebrush Rebellion' Wildfires in Idaho, Montana and other western states have stirred embers of the "Sagebrush Rebellion," as ranchers and politicians -- fairly or otherwise -- blame federal agencies, the courts and environmentalists for stoking firestorms on thousands of square miles of sagebrush, grass and forest. In July 2006, then-U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., told federal firefighters they'd done a "piss-poor job" on an eastern Montana blaze. He also said Boise was a ridiculous site from which to coordinate national firefighting strategy in the National Interagency Fire Center. This year, Nevada's Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., claimed environmental groups and federal bureaucracy have contributed to fires, including the Lake Tahoe blaze that burned more than 250 homes. And this week, Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, a rancher, and this state's two U.S. senators, Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, joined ranchers who blame federal safety rules for crippling early efforts to douse the 1,000-square-mile Murphy Complex wildfire. The Sagebrush Rebellion emerged in the 1970s in Western states dominated by federal land, as a coalition of mining and grazing groups pressured federal policy makers to cede control to locals. Today, fire seasons often result in a resurgence of this animosity among independent-minded Westerners who have spent generations on the land and bristle at being told what to do -- by the courts or the feds....
Feds Eye Money Used for Wildlife Center Justice Department officials investigating Sen. Ted Stevens are examining whether federal funds he steered to an Alaska wildlife research center may have enriched a former aide, say officials familiar with the probe. The Commerce Department and the Interior Department's inspector general are assisting in looking at how millions of dollars that Stevens, R-Alaska, obtained for the nonprofit Alaska SeaLife Center were spent, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the investigation's sensitivity. The SeaLife Center probe is in addition to an investigation by federal grand juries here and in Alaska into Stevens' ties to an oil company executive convicted of bribing Alaska state legislators. The FBI on Monday raided Stevens' home in Girdwood, Alaska, in connection with that grand jury probe, which is focused on Stevens' dealings with oil field services contractor Bill Allen. Last year, FBI raids on the offices of several Alaska lawmakers included Stevens' son, former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens. Neither the U.S. senator nor his son has been charged, and the elder Stevens has denied any wrongdoing....
Cheap ethanol or biodiversity? Jaguars, blue macaws and giant armadillos roam the fickle landscape of Brazil's Cerrado, a vast plateau where temperatures range from freezing to steaming hot and bushes and grasslands alternate with forests and the richest variety of flora of all the world's savannas. That could soon come to an end. In the past four decades, more than half of the Cerrado has been transformed by the encroachment of cattle ranchers and soybean farmers. And now another demand is quickly eating into the landscape: sugarcane, the raw material for Brazilian ethanol. "Deforestation in the Cerrado is actually happening at a higher rate than it has in the Amazon," said John Buchanan, senior director of business practices for Conservation International in Arlington. The roots of this transformation lie in the worldwide demand for ethanol, recently boosted by a U.S. Senate bill that would mandate the use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, more than six times the capacity of the United States' 115 ethanol refineries. President Bush, who proposed a similar increase in his State of the Union address, visited Brazil and negotiated a deal in March to promote ethanol production in Latin America and the Caribbean....
Grouse panel starts work A panel formed to look into how to preserve and improve sage grouse numbers and habitat in Wyoming began fashioning a list of recommendations Tuesday during its first meeting. The Sage Grouse Implementation Team compiled more than 30 possible recommendations it will discuss and refine over the next eight weeks. They include improved grazing practices, mapping out sage grouse habitat, different drilling practices and improved reclamation. Declining sage grouse numbers throughout the West has conservation groups calling for special federal protections to help the bird recover. Wyoming and other Western states worry that any protections might hamper energy development and livestock grazing. The Wyoming group consists of representatives of federal and state agencies, conservation groups, energy industry and landowners. Appointed by the governor, it plans four more meetings before sending its recommendations to Gov. Dave Freudenthal at the end of September....
Pumping plan stirs fears of a modern 'dust bowl' The notion of a new Dust Bowl, of winds blowing across the Nevada-Utah border that could send clouds of destabilized soil to the Wasatch Front, has prompted Utah lawmakers to ask Congress to spend more than $6 million for a closer examination of a proposed Nevada water pipeline. Members of the legislative Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee on Monday sent a letter to the Utah congressional delegation seeking support for a new study of the aquifer that lies under Snake Valley in western Utah. The letter says that without a greater understanding of the effects of a Southern Nevada Water Authority proposal to ship groundwater from northern Nevada to Las Vegas, Utah officials can't know the extent of the project's potential impact on Utah. But it could be dire, committee member Sen. Margaret Dayton said Tuesday....
Outlook: Blistering A group of Utah scientists on Tuesday backed up what more and more climate studies have been suggesting: Global warming already has started heating up our state and will produce droughts that are more severe and prolonged. The eight scientists presented their draft of "Climate Change and Utah: The Scientific Consensus," a kind of Cliff's Notes on climate change in Utah, to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Climate Change. The advisory panel, which is in the final stages of drawing up a priority list for reducing Utah's contribution to climate change, is expected to rely on the Utah scientists' report to shore up the climate to-do list that goes to Huntsman later this month. Jim Steenburgh, a University of Utah climate scientist who helped develop the report, emphasized there were no recommendations, just a review of scientific research already done that sheds light on how global warming is affecting Utah and might affect the state's climate landscape in the future....
Can wolves and sheep coexist here? Raising her handheld radio telemetry receiver above her head just before nightfall on Monday, Cindi Hillemeyer scanned the surrounding hills of the Smoky Mountains for a sign of the elusive Phantom Hill wolf pack. The objective of the 35-year-old's search was the steady ping, ping, ping that would signify the presence of one of the recently discovered pack's two radio collared animals. The individual frequency emitted by each radio collar not only indicates a wolf's position, but also its direction of travel. Biologists with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game confirmed the existence of the pack, its den site and the presence of three wolf pups in June. Behind Hillemeyer, upwards of 500 sheep grazed contentedly as the 11-year resident of the valley continued to scan the mix of meadow and forest. While at least one local sheep producer—Hailey-based Lava Lake Land and Livestock—elected to remove sheep from its grazing allotments earlier this summer after the pack was discovered, other grazers have chosen not to. One of those sheep ranchers—John Faulkner, of Gooding-based Faulkner Land and Livestock Co.—began to lose some of his sheep to wolf depredations on July 10 and 12. The sheep-killing incidents didn't end there....
Whitebarks and grizzlies While bear biologists readily acknowledge how important whitebark pine nuts are to grizzly bears, they also say that a reduction in this key food can be offset by the bear’s use of other foods. Some conservationists, however, say that is a dangerous assumption, one which could endanger the animals recently removed from federal Endangered Species Act protection. That's because the whitebark pine is continually hammered by drought, blister rust and a global warming-accelerated outbreak of mountain pine beetles, which shows no sign of abatement. “Regarding the level of science information on the whitebark pine and the mountain pine beetle, I wouldn’t send the delisting document out for review -- I’d return to the author for more work," said Jesse Logan, a retired entomologist for the U.S. Forest Service. “It is more than sloppy science. It is misleading science.” Those harsh words, made before reporters at a pine beetle workshop sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council last month, are backed by a formal declaration from Logan. He has a doctoral degree in entomology from Washington State University and has special expertise in modeling mountain pine beetle population dynamics for the Forest Service....
Rainbow members arrested in forest Carson National Forest law-enforcement officers arrested 10 participants in a Rainbow Family gathering north of Tres Piedras, according to Carson spokeswoman Kathy DeLucas. The 10 were charged with camping without a special-use permit for gatherings of more than 75 people, a federal offense. They were among 200 people who were camping at the site by Friday without a permit, DeLucas said. They were released on their own recognizance by a federal magistrate in Albuquerque and are scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 23. DeLucas said she didn’t know why only those 10 were arrested, and law-enforcement officers involved were unavailable for comment. She said she heard that Forest Service workers learned the loosely organized, back-to-the-earth group would be gathering near Tres Piedras, but no one from the group notified the agency. Members began showing up July 23 at the site, where in 1995 more than 15,000 Rainbow participants camped. DeLucas said law-enforcement officers took several copies of the special-use permit to the group July 24 and warned them they would start issuing citations if no one signed it....
Drop in lynx births spurs questions A dramatic decline in lynx reproduction the last two years won’t change the way federal agencies manage Colorado habitat for the rare wild cats. “From our perspective, nothing will change,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) biologist Kurt Broderdorp, who works with the U.S. Forest Service to ensure that activities like logging, recreation and ski area expansions are consistent with the recovery guidelines of the Endangered Species Act. The USFWS is responsible for animals listed as threatened or endangered. Most of the suitable lynx habitat in Colorado is on national forest land, so before the Forest Service approves a project, biologists from the two agencies make sure there are no significant adverse impacts to lynx. The Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) reported last week that no newborn kittens were found this year. Biologists with the recovery effort said a shortage of snowshoe hares may be the main reason for the lack of new births. Snowshoe hare numbers may be at a low point in a natural population cycle, the researchers speculated....
Bill would ban drilling on Roan A new energy bill before Congress includes a provision banning energy development on public lands atop the Roan Plateau. Reps. John Salazar and Mark Udall, both Colorado Democrats, added the provision Monday to the pending Energy Independence Act of 2007. “We can still have the public lands leased, but the minerals can be accessed only from other locations,” Udall said Tuesday. “It means we’re not going to disturb those public lands on the surface of the plateau.” Specifically, the provision would prohibit any “surface occupancy” for oil and gas exploration and development on the Roan Plateau, requiring energy companies to directionally drill from adjacent private land if they want to access the natural gas beneath the plateau. That way, the Bureau of Land Management will receive the royalty and bonus bids from energy development and give industry the chance to exploit the Roan Plateau’s minerals, according to a Salazar news release....
Fluid response to Otero Mesa Several months ago, New Mexico's two federal senators, Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, and Jeff Bingaman, a Silver City Democrat, and Democratic Rep. Tom Udall of Santa Fe came to the defense of New Mexico's Otero Mesa. They wrote letters to the Department of Interior and the Bureau of Land Management requesting that the agencies halt all oil and gas leasing and drilling in Otero Mesa. A drilling moratorium in America's wildest grassland would allow for a thorough study of the area's Salt Basin Aquifer to be completed. Less than a month after this bipartisan call for common sense was made, the Interior Department and BLM rejected the delegation's request. However, Republican Rep. Heather Wilson of Albuquerque is in a distinct position to ensure that New Mexico's largest, freshwater aquifer is preserved for future generations. In April, Wilson introduced the New Mexico Aquifer Assessment Act of 2007. This bill, which calls on Interior to study several aquifers in New Mexico, including the Salt Basin Aquifer under Otero Mesa, seeks to study aquifer recharge rates, the relationship between surface and subsurface water flow, and the vulnerability of aquifers to contamination....
Visitors see caverns' fantastic forms in new light High above the Jefferson River and tucked into the limestone depths of Cave Mountain lies a spectacular series of caverns. The natural beauty of the Lewis and Clark Caverns has drawn visitors' admiration for more than a century. But now, newly installed LED full-spectrum lights further illuminate the subtle colors and intricate carvings of what is considered one of the most highly decorated caves in the Northwest. Park Manager Lynette Kemp, who started at the park as a tour guide in 1991, marvels at what the lighting reveals. She points out the subtle hues of red, orange and purple in the calcite columns of the Paradise Room. "You could never see them before," she said. While the caverns were carved over the past 2 to 3 million years, their story actually begins some 330 million years ago, when Cave Mountain's limestone was first laid down. A large part of what is now the western United States was covered by a shallow warm sea. Over millions of years, layers of seashells and sea creatures were deposited, creating Cave Mountain in the London Hills. About 60 million years ago, the London Hills were thrust up, Kemp said. The major uplift created cracks in the limestone bed. "Rainfall made the caves by seeping down the cracks," she said. "It formed the rooms."....
Judge scolds city over eminent domain Cincinnati must pay $335,000 in attorney’s and witness fees to the owners of two fast-food restaurants in Clifton Heights who successfully challenged Cincinnati’s right to use eminent domain to take their properties. That’s the ruling by Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Ralph Winkler, whose written decision included a stern scolding of Cincinnati for the way it used eminent domain. “The City of Cincinnati should in the future be very careful when it initiates eminent domain proceedings against private property owners,” he wrote. “In this case, the city lost taxpayers’ money to legal fees and expenses.” He cited the Ohio Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year in the Norwood eminent domain case. In that decision against Norwood, the court said it’s unconstitutional for a government in Ohio to use eminent domain to take property from a private property owner to give to another private property owner. In Cincinnati’s case, the city tried to use eminent domain to seize the property of the owners of former Hardee’s and Arby’s restaurants for the proposed $270 million redevelopment along Calhoun Street in Clifton Heights....