Sustainable development a huge failure in Canada A decade-old plan to introduce sustainable development strategies and green thinking into the Canadian government's daily work has failed miserably, the environment commissioner said Tuesday. The 1997 plan "to encourage government departments to green their policies and programs" has become a "major disappointment," said environment commissioner Ron Thompson, releasing his annual audit. "We have found little evidence that the strategies have encouraged departments to integrate protection of the environment with economic and social issues in a substantive or meaningful way," he said. The sustainability idea emerged in a series of international meetings and reports during the 1970s and 1980s that promoted the idea of environmental protection in the self-interest of the human species. These eventually led to two statements of principle and a global agenda on sustainable development at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, the ambition and momentum that existed in the early stages of sustainable development strategies has faded," Thompson said....
Bush Chooses Former North Dakota Governor as Agriculture Secretary President Bush on Wednesday named former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer as Agriculture secretary. Schafer would succeed former Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns , who resigned Sept. 20 to run for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Republican Chuck Hagel. In 1990, Schafer ran against Sen. Byron L. Dorgan , D-N.D., capturing only 35 percent of the vote. He was elected North Dakota governor in 1992, and subsequently won re-election in 1996. He did not seek re-election in 2000. Schafer is currently chief executive of Extend America, a start-up wireless communications company, and is an advisor for the North Dakota chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a nationwide pro-growth organization....
Fortification ranchers worry about interference from BLM Rancher Brad Sorenson was nervous about the line drawn around his property straddling the southeast corner of Sheridan County and the northeast corner of Johnson County. He said so at Tuesday evening’s meeting attended by 20 to 30 people and hosted by the Bureau of Land Management Buffalo Field Office — a meeting seeking public input on the future management of Fortification Creek, a 123,000-acre area supporting a rare herd of 230 prairie elk. “We get nervous when the government starts drawing lines,” Sorenson said. “We own a lot of that land being circled in.” He added that much of that surface is privately owned. But some of the minerals beneath are federal. The line drawn around Sorenson’s ranch is the elk’s year-long range. It’s an area they’re known to inhabit because of radio collar tracking....
Flying coyotes Wichita County game warden Eddie Hood listened as a rancher told a crowd at a recent wildlife meeting that from his tractor he watched cattle egrets feeding on baby bobwhite quail hatched only three days before. The veteran Texas Parks & Wildlife Department field warden shook his head and called these protected, white birds, "The coyote of the bird world!" In other words the cattle egrets, though mainly insect feeders, will eat anything when it is available. I don't know if the description of an egret being the coyote of the bird world originated with him but I'm giving Hood credit for bringing it to the attention of the public. I first saw these white birds in 1962 when working in deep South Texas. When I asked about them I was told over the years they had worked their way up from South America where thy had been introduced in the 1880s. They had just emerged from Mexico and were thick along the gulf coast between Corpus Christi, Victoria, Houston, on into Louisiana and even Florida. In the past 45 years they have moved across the state and are now entering Oklahoma and Arkansas....
Senators seek input on canyon proposal Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., are asking Mesa, Montrose and Delta county commissioners what they think about a proposed Dominguez Canyon National Conservation Area. The senators say they are trying to determine whether legislation should be introduced in Congress as a first step in creating such an area. Their interest follows the release last week of a report by the Mesa State College Natural Resources and Land Policy Institute, which recommends wilderness protection for Big and Little Dominguez canyons and the creation of a national conservation area out of surrounding public land. The two canyons are at the heart of the proposed conservation area, which, if approved, would include more than 210,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land on the northeast slope of the Uncompahgre Plateau between Delta and Whitewater. Mesa County Commissioner Steve Acquafresca, who will represent the commission at the meeting, said Tuesday he will support the proposal only if ranchers’ objections are accounted for....
Cattle-grazing on San Mateo County parkland to cut wildfire risk Someday soon, hikers at the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve in San Mateo County will be able to enjoy the rural spectacle of cattle munching their way up a hill. The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District will re-introduce grazing to two former ranches within the preserve this winter as a naturally efficient way to manage weed buildup and cut back on wildfire risk. Come February, a grassy 240-acre portion of the popular 2,143-acre preserve will be home to as many as 40 cow-calf pairs or up to 60 steers. The district says the animals will feed on the invasive, non-native grasses that are conquering fields of native California grasses and wildflowers, such as California broom, purple needle grass, clarkias and irises. "The non-native grasses are much more prolific, and they're just crowding out the other, native species. That's what we're trying to reverse," said Kirk Lenington, resource planner for the district. "If you can get the cattle to start grazing, you'll put pressure on those species and they'll have reduced cover."....
Camping limit rankles hunter Nick Dole has set up a hunting camp in the same area of the Lewis and Clark National Forest every year since 1982 and stayed there for up to five weeks at a time, so it bothers him that the U.S. Forest Service stands to break his tradition by enforcing a 16-day limit on camping. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., also finds the decision disturbing and wants the regional head of the Forest Service to intervene. "Our personal camp has been -- what, a 20-some-year situation -- and they want to change it," Dole said Monday from the camp he and friends use as a base for hunting deer and elk in the Little Belt Mountains east of Helena. The site is an undeveloped piece of ground with no toilet and not even a fire ring, but the road access is good. "We've been here for this many years, and we kind of know where the game is and where it travels," said Dole, who is 65, retired from the food delivery business and lives southwest of Billings. He and several friends set up their camp -- featuring a tent with plywood walls, a gas-powered refrigerator and two stoves -- in time for the Oct. 21 opening of Montana's big-game season and plan to be there until it closes on Nov. 25. That's OK this year, but it won't be in 2008, the Forest Service says. Starting next year, the agency no longer will waive a 16-day limit on camping. People who wish to dwell in the forest longer must move to a different place, at least five air miles away, the Forest Service said....
Despite Wyden's block, Bush appointee gets Interior job A new assistant Interior secretary may owe his political promotion to an Oregon senator's newborn twins. Lyle Laverty, former director of Colorado State Parks, was confirmed this week as assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. He will oversee the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Laverty's confirmation came as his chief political opponent -- Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. -- was away from the Capitol celebrating the birth Friday of a twin boy and girl. Wyden's absence allowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule a vote on Laverty's nomination, despite a hold Wyden had placed on Laverty because of concerns about ethics violations at the Interior Department. Without Wyden there to object, the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed Laverty's nomination late Monday on a voice vote....
Biologists for Agency Endorse Dams Plan Federal fisheries officials in Seattle on Wednesday endorsed, with minor modifications, a plan for the government’s continued operation of the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. They said it did not jeopardize the survival of 13 stocks of salmon and steelhead that the government must protect under the Endangered Species Act. The endorsement, a draft analysis from the National Marine Fisheries Service, agreed with dozens of proposed protective actions that would provide enhanced measures to get juvenile fish past the dams as they swim seaward, improve habitat in the river and discourage predators like California sea lions and Caspian terns. Wednesday’s draft represents the fisheries agency’s third effort to find a binding, legally acceptable solution to the Northwest’s tug of war between salmon and dams....
House Close to Dismantling 1872 Statute on Mining The House is expected Thursday to take a major step toward dismantling the last significant law remaining from efforts to settle the American Wild West, an 1872 mining statute that has allowed vast treasures of gold and other minerals to be carted off federal lands without any royalties paid to the government. For 135 years, the General Mining Law has permitted prospectors to stake private claims to federal lands, although miners now tend to be corporate conglomerates, not frontiersmen with pickaxes. Environmentalists say the law has also left Western states deeply scarred by abandoned toxic mines. A House bill, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act, would permanently bar the sale of federal lands to miners and would require them for the first time to pay royalties of up to 8 percent of gross income from mining, which would go to a fund to clean up abandoned mines. It would also establish new permitting and environmental rules. Supporters say such changes are long overdue. “This is the last that I know of those frontier-era legislation to remain on the books,” said Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who for more than 20 years has been working to overturn the 1872 law....
BLM urged to deny Kane County access to route A national coalition of environmentalists charged the Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday with conspiring to "surrender control" of a road that crosses federal land in Kane County. The coalition, comprised of The Wilderness Society, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Wild Utah Project and Center for Biological Diversity, object to the BLM's preliminary non-binding determination that Bald Knoll Road is a valid R.S. 2477 public right-of-way. "Kane County's application (to designate Bald Knoll Road as an R.S. 2477 route) contains illegible aerial photos, an undated map, and contradictory stories from a few residents," said Ted Zukoski of Earthjustice, another environmental group voicing opposition to the BLM's proposal. "Kane County admits that it has no official records concerning highway construction or maintenance during the years necessary to prove its claim. For this reason alone, the BLM must reject the county's application." Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said the county has "followed to the letter" what was required of it by the federal government's designation procedure. "All that is required for a non-binding designation on Bald Knoll Road is for the county to submit a preponderance of evidence," he said. "We think we have far exceeded that burden."
93 sign House letter urging ban on off-highway vehicles in Utah wilderness A band of House members sent a letter Tuesday urging the federal government to block off-highway vehicle use in some of Utah's most remote lands, citing the cultural and archaeological treasures that might be damaged. One out of every five members of the House of Representatives signed the letter sent to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne - but none of them represents Utah. "I don't presume to set transportation policy for Chicago or New York," said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah. "So I would appreciate my colleagues - none of whom are from Utah - not trying to protect Utah from Utahns." The letter, backed by a number of environmental groups, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, is just the latest salvo in the fight over new federal land-use plans nationwide....
PREMISES ID REQUIREMENT ADOPTED FOR ILLINOIS FAIRS A premises identification number will be required to exhibit livestock at state, county, 4-H and FFA fairs beginning in 2008, the Illinois Department of Agriculture announced today. Premises registration is the first step toward the establishment of a National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and will greatly improve the ability of Illinois animal health professionals to contain disease outbreaks. “Knowing the location of each and every livestock operation in the state would enable us to quickly trace the movement of infected animals, impose quarantines and, perhaps, prevent the disease from spreading to neighboring farms if an outbreak were to occur,” Agriculture Director Chuck Hartke said. “The information is absolutely critical to our disease-fighting capabilities, especially at events like fairs where large numbers of animals are confined for short periods of time and then moved. This is one, reasonable step we can take to protect not only the health of livestock, but also the livelihood of the entire livestock industry.” Nearly 9,000 Illinois livestock operations already have enrolled in the NAIS, 30 percent of the state’s premises....
Cattlemen Must Join The Battle Against Animal Rights Extremism Animal rights activism is a significant and growing threat to the livelihood of cattle feeders and the livestock industry must unite to confront it, according to Kay Johnson Smith, executive vice president of the Animal Agriculture Alliance. Speaking at the 2007 Texas Cattle Feeders Association Annual Convention, Smith said cattlemen must understand that, for animal rights activists, their work “is not a job for them. It is a life mission. And they go to sleep thinking about it. They wake up thinking about it. They live to try to find opportunities to put you out of business.” Smith said the activist organizations like The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Farm Sanctuary and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) routinely work together and have ample financial resources. The combined annual income of 22 top animal rights groups amounts to more than $300 million a year, according to Smith. Much of the money animal rights activists accumulate is being used to purchase stocks in restaurant chains, grocery store chains and other companies involved in the food and animal business. Smith said, although that may seem to be an odd investment choice for people strongly opposed to animal agriculture, “the reason (for buying stocks) is so that they can introduce shareholder resolutions. If they can make change from inside companies, they have a lot more control, and they can control that change.” Their fiscal strength is also making animal rights organizations a major player in the political arena, Smith said. For example, the $3.4 million HSUS spent on the 2006 elections exceeded the amount spent by Exxon Mobil Corporation on supporting candidates....
U.S. Imports, Need To Improve Product Safety Measures Grow Regulators hoping to bolster the safety of U.S. imports have their work cut out for them if data presented at the Meat Industry Research Conference in Chicago is any indicator. According to presenter Patricia Wester, global regional manager with SGS-USTC Food Safety Services, some 2 trillion products annually enter 300 U.S. seaports at the behest of 825,000 U.S. importers. Further, imports are expected to triple by 2015. Among the top exporters to the United States? China, which has faced mounting criticism for exporting defective or adulterated product to U.S. interests. By food category, seafood is the top U.S. import, followed by meat and poultry, and cereal and cereal preparations, according to Wester, who noted that cereal preparations often are used as ingredients in meat....
It's in the Blood Long recognized as one of the country’s outstanding ranch and rodeo families, the Suttons of South Dakota attribute much of their success to bloodlines and breeding. For as lon as there has been organized rodeo on the Northern Great Plains, Sutton Rodeo of Onida, South Dakota, has been a part of it. And, far from being a regional phenomenon, the stock contracting combine’s influence has extended far beyond the plains of north-central South Dakota, to such hallowed grounds as the National Finals Rodeo and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Hall of Fame. What’s more, the family behind Sutton Rodeo is just one branch of a tree that boasts an equally impressive history in cattle and buffalo ranching, and Quarter Horse breeding. To what does the clan owe its long list of accomplishments? According to Sutton Rodeo patriarch Jim Sutton, hard work and perseverance have most certainly played a part. So, too, he says, have bloodlines and breeding. “My ancestors came to South Dakota in 1883,” Sutton says. “My great-grandfather Jacob Sutton shipped his family and belongings to the rail end at Redfield, and then hauled them 100 miles by ox team to his homestead in Potter County....