NEWS ROUNDUP

Idaho Lieutenant Governor Announces Bid to Succeed Craig GOP Lt. Gov. Jim Risch of Idaho announced his candidacy Tuesday for the U.S. Senate seat now held by fellow Republican Larry E. Craig, who has said he will step down after completing his term next year. Risch was widely viewed as Republican Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s top choice candidate to fill out Craig’s Senate term had the senator kept to his pledge to resign from Congress if he was unable to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from an airport restroom sex sting. An attorney and rancher, Risch is a member of the Idaho Cattleman’s Association, the American and Idaho Angus Association, and the National Rifle Association. Craig is a rancher and has been an NRA board member. During his seven-month term as governor, Risch won over skeptics and made major inroads in the environmental community as a surprise ally in the fight to keep Idaho’s wild places pristine. Risch “became a new kind of conservative — one who held true to Republican tenets, but with greener, environmentally minded leanings,” the (Twin Falls) Times-News said in an editorial....
Railroad into Montana coal country gets OK from feds Federal officials on Tuesday announced approval of the final stretch of a long-delayed $341 million rail line that could open southeastern Montana's vast but largely untapped coal fields to more intensive development. The Tongue River Railroad, first proposed in 1983, would run 130 miles from Miles City to Decker _ into the heart of the coal-rich Powder River Basin along the Montana-Wyoming border. Area landowners have fiercely fought the proposed line fearing it could industrialize a rural area now dominated by agriculture. Permits from state and federal agencies are still needed, and rights of way through private and public property must be secured before the line could be built. Also, an unresolved 1998 federal lawsuit hangs over the project, meaning the line could get tied up in court before construction begins. But a railroad attorney said Tuesday's federal go-ahead was crucial and will allow the Tongue River Railroad Co. to start lining up a customer base that can deliver a steady supply of coal. The could include the state of Montana, which has a roughly 40 percent stake in a 1.4 billion-ton coal tract located off the proposed line in an area known as Otter Creek....
The Clean Water Act--Misinterpretation and misimplementation Acting on an overly broad interpretation of the Clean Water Act, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) issued a cease and desist order on our family farm in the spring of 2004. We were planning to transition a parcel of grazing pasture into winegrapes and were accused of deep-ripping the ground and filling and destroying waters of the United States. In reality, we had simply disked the ground once annually as part of our normal and routine farming practices to reduce the fire hazard and regenerate the grasses for winter cattle feed. The ACE claimed that there were wet areas on our property subject to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and our proposed transition from pasture to grapes violated the "prior converted cropland" provision of the CWA. The cease and desist order remained in place for two years, during which time we were not able to graze cattle or begin planting the vineyard as planned. We lost two years' worth of production income, in addition to hours of time and energy spent proving the parcel did not contain "navigable intrastate waters of the U.S." that were subject to the CWA. Unfortunately, this is not the only experience we've had where the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act has been misinterpreted and misimplemented to the detriment of our family farm. Now, that jurisdiction could be broadened even further....
Endangered foxes released on island off Santa Barbara Ten island fox pups have been released into the wild, the last of a group reared in captivity as part of an effort to restore the endangered species. The pups scurried into wooded canyons Monday at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the middle of this 96-square-mile island off Santa Barbara, said Tim Coonan, a biologist with the National Park Service. There were once 1,500 foxes, but their numbers dwindled to as few as 80 because of pigs and turkeys brought to the island by ranchers. The turkeys and pigs provided prey for golden eagles, which in turn also began feasting on the foxes. The fox population has since rebounded to more than 300 with the help of the breeding program, Coonan said. About 85 foxes have been raised in captivity and released since 2003....
Coyotes getting ugly, kill pets Coyotes are running amok in an Aurora neighborhood, in some cases jumping fences and killing people's pets, according to one City Council member who wants the problem fixed. "They've been raiding yards and taking small pets," said Councilman Larry Beer, who said he's getting calls from constituents. He said Monday he knows of at least six incidents of "coyote-on- pet predatory activity." But Beer found out recently that getting rid of the coyotes is complicated. The coyotes in question have been seen frolicking behind the 11th and 12th holes of the Aurora Hills Golf Course and along the Highline Canal Trail in the Park East neighborhood. Phyllis Rider, whose house faces the trail, said she knows of three instances in which coyotes have killed small dogs within two blocks of her since January....
Hunter attacked by bear A lower Michigan man was in stable condition Monday in a Marquette hospital after being bitten by a bear in Ontonagon County on Sunday. Steve Remsing, 53, of Sterling Heights, was being treated at Marquette General Hospital after being transferred from Ontonagon Memorial Hospital. Michigan State Police from the L'Anse post responded to the report of Remsing being bitten by the bear near Courtney Lake in Bohemia Township. Police said Remsing was hunting when he shot a large black bear while it was in a tree, where it had been chased by a pack of dogs. The bear fell from the tree and started fighting with a dog that had treed it. When Remsing tried to stop the fight between the bear and the dog, the bear attacked him, police said. Another hunter in the party, Shane Majors of Roscommon, jumped on the bear and stabbed it with a knife until it stopped attacking Remsing, police said. The bear then ran off a short distance and died....
Colorado wildfire frequency tied to ocean temperature patterns For years, skiers have tuned in to long-range weather outlooks to determine whether an El Niño or La Niña might bring a bountiful powder season. Along with shaping winter precipitation patterns, recent research suggests that the shifts in sea surface temperatures can also be tied to the frequency and intensity of forest fires. For forests like Summit County's subalpine lodgepole pines, drought conditions induced by La Niña, and even temperature shifts in the Atlantic Ocean, could be a bigger factor than previously thought. After studying the historic recurrence of fire in Rocky Mountain National Park and comparing that data with climate records, Forest Service scientists concluded in a recent study that fire occurred more frequently than expected during La Niña conditions. Another large-scale pattern that may be equally significant for Colorado is a change in Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures. The Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation, as it's known, is not as understood as the Pacific El Niño/La Niña phenomenon. But the shift in temperatures does affect drought conditions in Colorado and other parts of the U.S....
Judge tells federal agency to reconsider Oregon coho protection The federal agency overseeing restoration of declining salmon in the Northwest must take another look at its decision not to protect Oregon coastal coho under the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge Garr M. King in Portland affirmed a magistrate's findings earlier this year that NOAA Fisheries was arbitrary and capricious and did not rely on the best available science when it decided to leave Oregon coastal coho off the threatened species list. The agency has until Dec. 8 to make a decision. It will consider whether to appeal, said spokesman Brian Gorman. Putting Oregon coastal coho back on the threatened species list would add another layer of regulation to logging and other land use decisions on federal, state and private lands in the central Oregon Coast Range. That would include the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plan to ramp up logging in Western Oregon to boost federal revenues paid to timber-dependent counties. Once a staple of Oregon's commercial salmon fleet, with historic population estimates of 2 million fish, Oregon coastal coho went into steep decline in the 1990s, bottoming out around 14,000, due to a combination of overfishing, loss of habitat to logging and agriculture, misguided hatchery practices and poor ocean conditions. In recent years numbers have rebounded....
Federal government rejects Palouse earthworm petition The federal government said Tuesday that a petition to protect the giant Palouse earthworm as an endangered species does not contain enough scientific data to conclude that such protection is warranted. The petition seeking threatened or endangered status for the rarely seen worm _ which can grow as long as 3 feet and spit at attackers _ was filed on August 30, 2006, by environmental groups. "We share the petitioners' concern for the species," said Susan Martin, supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office in Spokane. "While we will not be initiating an in-depth status review at this time, we will continue to cooperate with others to monitor the species." The decision upset conservationists, who blamed the Bush administration. The giant Palouse earthworm was first discovered in 1897 near Pullman, Wash. Although only a few specimens have been collected, it was thought to be abundant in the Palouse. But the last confirmed sighting of the species was in 2005 by a University of Idaho researcher. Previously, the giant worm had not been seen since 1988. There is little about the worm in the scientific record. Information regarding the range, distribution, population size and status of the worm is limited, preventing the assessment of population trends, the agency said....
Wolf/livestock conflicts ease Although September can mark a busy time for wolf and livestock conflicts, Wyoming had a quiet month, ending a relatively quiet summer in the wolf world. Representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they took an "aggressive" stance and killed problem wolves immediately. Those wolves were generally in areas where livestock depredations were chronic, and in areas outside where wolves would receive some protection once they're removed from the federal endangered species list. Mike Jimenez, Wyoming's wolf coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said this year there were 29 confirmed cattle kills and 16 sheep depredations by wolves, compared with 123 cattle and 38 sheep last year. And this year officials killed 52 wolves so far, compared with 44 for all of 2006. "I looked at the data over the years, and what happens is we have some packs that chronically, year after year after year, cause problems," Jimenez said. "If we respond more aggressively, we can reduce livestock depredations."....