Court stricter on fire control In a decision that affects all national forests, a federal appellate court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Forest Service cannot cut brush and use controlled burns to reduce the risk of wildfires in and near urban areas unless it first performs a detailed assessment of the environmental impact. The ruling, which reversed a 2005 decision by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. of Sacramento, comes after a devastating fire season that included the destruction of more than 250 homes in the South Lake Tahoe area and a series of Southern California firestorms that displaced hundreds of thousands of residents. Environmentalists hailed the ruling, saying it halts part of the Bush administration's "Healthy Forests" initiative and what they see as unchecked logging in national forests. But even one of the federal judges who concurred with the ruling questioned whether the net result would be years of delay before real efforts can be made to protect residents near national forests from wildland fires. The decision requires Burrell to issue an injunction against the Forest Service that will apply to all 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands halting much of the efforts to use controlled burns and brush clearing to prevent future wildfires....
Forest Service sued over how it develops fire management plans in Southwest An environmental group sued the U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday, claiming the agency's fire management plans for certain forests in the Southwest are inadequate and produced without enough public input. Forest Guardians accused the agency of developing fire plans for a pair of forests in New Mexico and two others in Arizona without studying the potential impact on the environment as required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. The group filed its lawsuit in federal court in Phoenix. It wants the court to order the Forest Service to open its plans to public and scientific review. "The system is broken as it is and it's not working," said Bryan Bird, public lands director for Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians. "... We need to get out our pencils and erasers and work at it."....
Lawsuit says Montana logging project threatens grizzlies A Forest Service plan to move forward with a timber sale in northwestern Montana jeopardizes grizzly bears and should be blocked, an environmental group contends in a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The suit the Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula says the Forest Service arbitrarily advanced the Northeast Yaak timber project, calling for removal of trees on 1,777 acres north of Libby. The suit names both that agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which the alliance says should not have agreed with the Forest Service that the logging and related road construction would not harm grizzlies. The bears are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The area in dispute is part of the federally designated Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone about 30 miles north of Libby. The zone covering 2,600 square miles has 30-40 grizzlies, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service....
Small fish to be returned to original location The Gila topminnow, a small species of endangered fish native to Arnett Creek in eastern Pinal County, may be reintroduced this fall as the Arizona Game and Fish Department works with various groups to restore the 6-inch mosquito eater to one of its homes. Arnett Creek and Telegraph Canyon near Picket Post Mountain and Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park will be the site of the reintroduction of the fish in a renovated stream where a fish barrier has been constructed to keep out non-native predatory fish, said Tony Robinson, a wildlife specialist supervisor for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Thompson is working with Superior rancher Frank Heron, who has grazing allotments in Tonto National Forest. He also is assisted by Forest Service officials as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in bringing the fish back to their native swimming holes. The Gila topminnow now are enjoying the algae in Ayer Lake at Boyce Thompson Arboretum, which has helped raise threatened and endangered species of fish since 1971, Thompson said....
Deal Reached on Timber Payments Payments to rural counties that once depended on federal timber money to pay for schools and libraries would continue for four more years under an energy bill being considered by Congress. A deal reached Wednesday would set aside more than $1.5 billion to compensate 700 rural counties in 39 states, mostly in the South and West, that were hurt by federal logging cutbacks imposed in the 1990s. The counties lost money when the federal government imposed restrictions on logging in national forests to help preserve the spotted owl and other endangered species. Lawmakers and staff stressed that the timber deal was tentative, but said it was included in energy legislation that could come up for a vote in the House as soon as Thursday. A Senate Democratic aide said the plan would authorize $554 million for the timber program in the budget year that starts in October, with payments decreasing each year until they reach $202 million in 2012. Another $350 million would be directed to rural states through a program that reimburses state and local governments for federally owned property....Notice how if a Federal policy has a negative impact on state or local governments, they will compensate them. Yet, if the same policy has a negative impact on private companies or individuals, no compensation is forthcoming. Government will compensate government, but not people.
Bringing Down the Grouse The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must reconsider its decision not to list the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, a federal judge ruled this week. The judge said that the FWS ignored the best available science on the species when deciding whether to list it in 2005; he also expressed doubts about the efficacy of the agency's entire decision-making process. The sage grouse decision, he said, was also heavily and improperly influenced by Julie MacDonald, a former political appointee who resigned last May. "Her tactics included everything from editing scientific conclusions to intimidating [FWS] staffers," the judge wrote. "Her extensive involvement in the sage grouse listing decision process taints the ... decision and requires a reconsideration without her involvement." The ruling is a victory for species advocates who have said that all kinds of species and habitat decisions should be reconsidered due to MacDonald's role, not just the seven cases the FWS has said are the only ones in need of review....
Anti-wolf group responds to state management plan Wolves are on the minds of many Idahoans following this week's unveiling of the state's plan to manage the species if it's delisted from federal protection early next year. But wolves are in the hearts of the Idaho Anti-wolf Coalition, a group that passionately wants all wolves removed from Idaho. The group, led by Stanley outfitter Ron Gillette, doesn't trust the federal or state government to manage wolves, which they say are wiping out elk populations. The coalition is circulating a petition to back Idaho out of the recently released management plan and to refuse cooperation with the federal government. "This is a crisis that's going on," said Twin Falls hunter Tony Mayer at a meeting hosted by the group Tuesday night at the Turf Club in Twin Falls. "This is a despicable situation. It's an epidemic. It's a problem." The group says any number of wolves in Idaho are too many, and they blame the government for what they call a wildlife crisis....
Tragedy of the Commons II And sharing can't be a basis for production -- you can't share what hasn't been produced. My point is that production and prosperity require property rights. Property rights associate effort with benefits. Where benefits are unrelated to effort, people do the least amount necessary to get by while taking the most they can get. Economists have a pithy way of summing up this truth: No one washes a rental car. It's called the "tragedy of the commons." The idea is as old as ancient Greece, but ecologist Garrett Hardin popularized the phrase in a 1968 Science magazine article. Hardin described a common pasture on which anyone may graze his livestock. Each person will benefit from a larger herd but will suffer only a tiny fraction of the negative effects of overgrazing. Public Choice economists call this "concentrated benefits and dispersed costs." That's a recipe for depleting the resource. If a herdsman were to leave a portion of the commons ungrazed, someone else would gain the benefit, so why leave it ungrazed? Soon, all the grass is gone, and the livestock die. That's the tragedy of the commons. There are two possible solutions. One is to put someone in charge. But that someone would have arbitrary power over the rest -- he may give his friends better terms -- and one individual can't possibly know how to plan the village economy. The second solution, as the pilgrims learned the hard way, is private property. Property rights unite costs and benefits. If a herdsman owns part of the pasture, he reaps not only 100 percent of the benefits of enlarging his herd but also 100 percent of the costs. Under those conditions, he behaves differently. If he undergrazes, uses fewer pesticides, etc., to make sure that the pasture flourishes next year, he can anticipate the future benefits. So, he has a strong incentive to be a good steward of the land....
Conservation group sues to stop coastal wind farms The dispute over construction of two wind farms adjacent to the famed King Ranch in south Texas entered the courts Tuesday when an alliance of conservation and related groups filed lawsuits to stop the projects. The Coastal Habitat Alliance, which includes King Ranch, filed separate lawsuits in state and federal court in Austin. The federal lawsuit claims the state has not done a thorough analysis of the impact the farms and their massive turbines will have on wetlands, habitat, endangered species and migratory birds. It seeks a declaratory judgment and, if needed, an injunction against the developers, whose combined initial investments are expected to top $1 billion. The state lawsuit claims the Texas Public Utility Commission illegally denied the alliance a chance to intervene in the PUC's hearings on transmission lines for the wind farms. The PUC late last month approved plans for a $60 million transmission-line project to be built by AEP Texas, division of Ohio-based American Electric Power. Both wind farms and the transmission line are going up on the sprawling Kenedy Ranch, the smaller neighbor of King Ranch, which covers 825,000 acres on the Texas Gulf Coast....
GOCo grant to protect land along Rio Grande Great Outdoors Colorado's second-largest grant of nearly $7.4 million will help aid preservation efforts along the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley. With Monday's award, the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust will be able to preserve 5,630 acres along the river in four valley counties. Through the use of voluntary conservation easements, the group hopes to keep the ranches and farms along the river in operation, preserve open space and maintain wildlife habitat. The grant was the biggest contribution the group has received since it was formed in 1999 and began working with other conservation groups in the area....
USGS Study Finds Ash from Southern California Fires May Pose Problems Ash from last month's southern California fires may pose problems to health and the environment, according to preliminary results from a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study released to the Multi-Agency State and Federal Task Force. Samples collected from two residential areas burned by the Grass Valley and Harris wildfires indicate that the ash contains caustic alkali materials and can contain somewhat elevated levels of metals such as arsenic, lead, zinc and copper. Ash from burned wildlands can also contain caustic alkali materials, though at lower levels than the residential ash. "These findings are consistent with the scientific knowledge about wildfire ash that has led counties in California to issue advisories regarding appropriate precautionary measures to avoid health problems associated with exposure to the ash," said Dr. Geoffrey Plumlee, a USGS lead author of the study. "The study results also indicate that rain-water runoff from burned areas may adversely affect ecosystems and the quality of surface drinking water supplies," said Deborah Martin, a USGS wildfire ash specialist and study co-author. Additionally, critical habitat for some aquatic species may be affected by spikes in alkalinity as rainwater mixes with ash to form surface runoff....
Two horses die after roundup in Carson forest The U.S. Forest Service says two wild horses captured during a roundup in the Carson National Forest have died. An agency spokeswoman, Kathy DeLucas, says one horse died November 26th after running head-first into a metal corral panel and breaking its neck. The corral was at the capture site on Jarita Mesa in the El Rito Ranger District. DeLucas says the other horse was euthanized because of an infected wound it suffered after a fall. The Forest Service says 22 other wild horses captured in the district are healthy and available for adoption. The agency has determined the district can support 20 to 70 horses. DeLucas says staff members estimate 60 to 100 horses still roam the district.
Utah's wild and scenic rivers Utah is on the way to having perhaps hundreds of miles of the state's most beautiful rivers and streams added to the national Wild and Scenic River system. In a move that would launch the Beehive State into the national mainstream, the U.S. Forest Service has deemed 24 river and stream segments totaling 212 miles suitable for the federal designation that would provide extra layers of protection to special waterways. That's only about a quarter of the waterways the agency previously found eligible. But any Utah river designated wild and scenic would be a significant accomplishment, said Utah Rivers Council spokesman Mark Danenhauer. The council has been pushing for all 840 miles of waterways in 86 eligible rivers and streams to be put on the list. Many other conservation groups and individuals likely will be disappointed in the preferred alternative detailed in the Forest Service's recently released draft environmental impact statement, Danenhauer said....
US Senate Panel Approves Bill To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions A U.S. Senate committee has passed landmark legislation aimed at combating global warming by limiting carbon dioxide emissions. The vote was timed to coincide with the U.N. conference on climate change taking place in Bali, Indonesia. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill. The bill would set caps on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from electric utility, transportation and manufacturing industries beginning in 2012 with the goal of cutting emissions 60 percent by 2050. It would create an incentive system that would give credits to industries that cut pollution. Industries that failed to reduce emissions would be forced to buy credits from others. The Democratic-led Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 11 to eight, largely along party lines, to send the measure to the full Senate for what supporters hope will be action early next year....
From Mad Cow to Cash Cow Russia's appetite for beef products has grown substantially and gone sharply upscale since it banned U.S. exports four years ago. Before Russia banned U.S. beef in reaction to the discovery of a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, it was the fifth-largest market for U.S. exports. But where citizens bought mostly cheaper meat products like livers, hearts and kidneys, they are now moving up the food chain to cuts like tenderloin. Now the U.S. and Russia have nearly finished a new deal that domestic producers are counting on to generate millions of dollars in sales. Richard Crowder, former chief agriculture negotiator for the U.S. trade representative, said: "We've got this down to a minimal number of issues. We're going to get this done." Mr. Crowder is now a consultant and negotiator for the USTR. U.S. exporters can legally export beef to Russia, but only under a November 2006 agreement that applies burdensome restrictions on what can be sent. No shipments to Russia have been made under that deal, but at least one sale was recently struck, according to U.S. government and industry officials. The new deal would lift the restrictions, making trade flow much less onerous....
Cattle rancher gives folks Cracker Cowboy Experience tour in Okeechobee Cattle rancher and Florida native John Glenn wants to share the Okeechobee Cracker Cowboy Experience. He opened his ranch Wednesday to visitors to tour the life of Florida cattle ranchers and cowboys from long ago to modern day life. Kathy Scott with the Tourist Development Coucil, along with Glenn, resident George Sweat, and cowboy Bill Owens, have teamed up to create the tour, which takes visitors through the ranch showing them what life was like when the first American cowboy in Florida made cattle ranching a distinct way of life. "The Cracker Cowboy Experience is an exciting addition to the Okeechobee County tourism industry," Scott said. "Visitors to Florida are looking for unique, natural, historical and family oriented entertainment." Glenn said he's dedicated "the experience" to displaying the rich and authentic history of the Florida cowboy's way of life....