Wednesday, February 07, 2007

BORDER FENCE STOPPED - JAGUARS

From: Keeler Ranch
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 6:57 PM
Subject: Border Fence stopped


Just received a call from a friend who's son-in-law is the agent in charge of building the border fence near Naco, Arizona. The fence has been stopped until they can prove a jaguar is not coming across from Mexico.

So much for a border fence and all the money that has already been spent building one.

Judy

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

GAO

Environmental Information: EPA Actions Could Reduce the Availability of Environmental Information to the Public, by John B.
Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. GAO-07-464T, February 6.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-464T

Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07464thigh.pdf
NEWS ROUNDUP

For Wolves, a Recovery May Not Be the Blessing It Seems The news for the wolf last week was the opposite of a cloud with a silver lining. At first glance, it seems like a win for conservation that wolves are now successful enough that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed taking wolves in Idaho and Montana off the endangered species list. But the price of success may be high. In Idaho, the governor is ready to have hunters reduce the wolf population in the state from 650 to 100, the minimum that will keep the animal off the endangered species list. “I’m prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself,” Gov. C. L. Otter said, according to The Associated Press. Of all the protected and endangered species in the United States, none has provoked stronger feelings than the wolf, reviled or revered, depending on the person. And few have been as visible a success. The proposed delisting, as it is called, comes because the population of wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains is surging. Many people in the northern Rockies would like to see large numbers of wolves killed as soon as possible, which is why Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group that played a pivotal role in the wolf’s return, opposes the delisting....Isn't the New York Times just a wonderful publication. The recovery of the wolf is now a bad thing?
Bush again proposes selling national forest land For the second year in a row, the Bush administration on Monday proposed selling off up to 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools and roads. And for the second year, Western lawmakers and environmentalists blasted the plan, saying short-term gains would be offset by the permanent loss of the land. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the new chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee that oversees environmental spending, pronounced the plan dead on arrival. "They are just not going to do this. It's not going to happen," Dicks said. "We're going to find a way to fund the (rural) schools program without selling even one acre of public land," added Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana. Western lawmakers also were concerned about Bush's plan to cut the Forest Service budget by more than $100 million. The figure represents a 7 percent drop in expected spending for the current budget year....
President Bush Reinforces Commitment To Cooperative Conservation In 2006 Budget President Bush continued to build on the legacy of cooperative conservation established in his first term by supporting programs in the 2006 budget that promote partnerships with the American people to conserve our nation's land and water, wildlife and other natural resources. The Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce departments and the Environmental Protection Agency all fund key partnership programs that will empower states, tribes, local communities, conservation groups, private landowners and others to undertake conservation projects. These projects range from wetlands restoration efforts occurring along Ball Bay on Upper Klamath Lake; to the removal of invasive plants in Palm Beach, Fla.; to the development and implementation of self-regulating strategies to mitigate the trend of declining marine populations in Kenai Fjords, Alaska. The funding supports the president's executive order signed last year on "Facilitation of Cooperative Conservation."....
JOHANNS OUTLINES PRESIDENT BUSH'S FY 2008 AGRICULTURE BUDGET The 2008 budget reflects the President's priorities to encourage economic growth and increase our security. It also reflects the President's goal to keep spending under control and achieve a balanced budget. On January 31, the Administration announced a comprehensive set of Farm Bill proposals for strengthening the farm economy and rural America. Beginning in 2008, the budget incorporates a $500 million increase each year in the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) estimates to accommodate the cost of new farm bill proposals to be allocated among the various titles of the bill. Total USDA expenditures are estimated at about $89 billion in 2008, which is approximately the same level as 2007. Roughly 75 percent of expenditures, or $67 billion in 2008, will be for mandatory programs that provide services required by law, which include many of the nutrition assistance, commodity, export promotion and conservation programs. USDA's discretionary programs account for the remaining 25 percent of expenditures or $22 billion in 2008, which is approximately the same level as 2007....
President Bush’s FY 2008 Budget Proposes $1.8 Billion for BLM The Bush Administration today proposed a $1.8 billion budget in appropriated funds for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management. This is $57.8 million above the Fiscal Year 2007 budget request. The budget fully funds fixed costs of $44.1 million. The BLM budget features a $15 million increase to implement a new Healthy Lands Initiative that will ensure energy access while protecting habitat and wildlife in the wildlife-energy interface. The President’s proposed Fiscal Year 2008 budget for the BLM also includes $142.9 million to ensure that the agency continues to provide dependable, accessible energy from public lands in an environmentally responsible manner. Hughes said the Healthy Lands Initiative will allow the BLM to conduct landscape-scale restoration in six areas: southwest Wyoming; the northwest and southeast portions of New Mexico; southcentral Idaho; southwestern Colorado; Utah; and the three-corner state area between Idaho, Oregon, and Nevada. The money budgeted for this initiative is expected to result in an additional $10 million in in-kind and monetary contributions from Federal, state, local, and oil and gas industry partners that will work collaboratively with the BLM. The Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey are included in this initiative, providing support to the BLM’s habitat restoration goals. The 2008 budget request includes an increase of $3.1 million over FY 2007 for the BLM’s oil and gas inspection and monitoring activities, which will ensure that energy development is done in an environmentally sensitive way and that terms of energy-related permits are enforced. The 2008 budget proposes to address the split-estate issue, seeking authorization to retain funding from the sale of mineral rights to current non-Federal surface landowners. Revenue would be used to acquire important habitat....
More than $2.1 Billion Requested by President Bush for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The President's FY 2008 budget request of $1.287 billion in discretionary appropriations for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supports a range of important conservation initiatives, including efforts to improve our nation's native fisheries and assist landowners who volunteer to manage their property for the benefit of imperiled wildlife. The budget includes an additional $859.4 million available under permanent appropriations, most of which will be provided directly to states for fish and wildlife and restoration and conservation. The FY 2008 request provides critical support for the Service's efforts to expand fish access to stream habitat necessary for natural reproduction. The budget request includes $11.0 million for the fish passage program. This is a $6.0 million increase and will allow the FWS to participate in the Open Rivers Initiative....
Court denies injunction on Middle East Fork logging The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday turned down a request by a pair of environmental groups for an emergency injunction on Montana's first Healthy Forest Restoration Act fuel reduction project. In a two-sentence order, the three-judge panel denied the injunction request and retained the schedule for further court hearings on the matter. In December, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy rejected all claims of the WildWest Institute and Friends of the Bitterroot lawsuit that challenged the Bitterroot National Forest's Middle East Fork Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project. The ruling followed months of contentious debate over the future of a project that proposed to treat about 5,000 acres in a 25,800-acre area about two miles east of Sula. The project was designed to reduce wildland fire threats to the local community and treat areas affected by a Douglas fir bark beetle epidemic....
Group counts 6,700 elk in northern Yellowstone area Officials counted slightly more elk in and around northern Yellowstone National Park in late 2006 than they did earlier in the year, but still far fewer than were counted in 2005. The annual count is done by the Northern Yellowstone Cooperative Working Group, made up of representatives from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. On Dec. 30 the group counted 6,739 elk while flying three planes in clear weather along the park's northern boundary. That was up from 6,588 elk counted in March 2006, but well below the 9,545 that were counted in January 2005. Yellowstone biologist P.J. White said the decrease since 2005 probably is the result of predation by wolves and other large carnivores. He said predators also change elk behavior. Elk have been dispersed more, have gathered in smaller groups and have been spending more time in forested areas where they're harder to spot, he said....
Drilling begins in county-to-county water test The drilling of two holes in the Cleveland National Forest began today to test if 646 million gallons of water each day can be transported through a tunnel between Riverside and Orange counties. The Metropolitan Water District's findings could also be used to determine if construction of a vehicular tunnel is feasible. The work was postponed from a few weeks ago because the district needed clearance from the U.S. Forest Service, said spokesman Denis Wolcott. The drilling could take about three months and analysis of rock, soil and water pressure from 2,200 feet below will follow. The district board could know later this year whether a 12-mile tunnel can be constructed, though the agency does not have plans to build one immediately. The water now travels through various conduits around the mountains. The underground tunnel could be used in addition to the existing conduits....
Receiving prairie dog clearance After waiting half a year for action on a request to remove Utah prairie dogs, Cedar Ridge Golf Course and the Paiute Tribe of Utah received permits to clear their properties. John Evans, Cedar Ridge Golf Course director, said this is good news for golfers; clearing prairie dogs will make the course much more attractive. "It will make it so we can play golf again," he said. Lora Tom, Paiute Tribe of Utah chairwoman, said clearing the property will allow the tribe to grow. "We're appreciative, (and) we're surprised," she said. "It means possibilities." But receiving the permits wasn't all good news - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed the parameters of the permits. The golf course and Paiute Tribe will not be allowed to trap and kill any dogs; all dogs must be relocated as "live take," said Elise Boeke, USFWS ecologist. This makes the timeline to clear both properties uncertain....
Removal order issued for endangered gray wolf in New Mexico A male endangered Mexican gray wolf has been targeted for removal by the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency said the six-year-old, wild born member of the San Mateo Pack has been involved in the killing of three cows in New Mexico since last March. The Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing wolves into the wild on the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its historic range....
Wild eagles attack paraglider Britain's top female paraglider has cheated death after being attacked by a pair of "screeching" wild eagles while competition flying in Australia. Nicky Moss, 38, watched terrified as two huge birds began tearing into her parachute canopy, one becoming tangled in her lines and clawing at her head 2,500 meters (8,200ft) in the air. "I heard screeching behind me and a eagle flew down and attacked me, swooping down and bouncing into the side of my wing with its claws," Moss told Reuters on Friday. "Then another one appeared and together they launched a sustained attack on my glider, tearing at the wing." The encounter happened on Monday while Moss -- a member of the British paragliding team -- was preparing for world titles this month at Manilla in northern New South Wales state....
Farm Bureau celebrates the affordability of food In just five weeks, the average American earns enough disposable income to pay for his or her food supply for the entire year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Farm Bureau is celebrating the continued affordability of food Feb. 4-10, during Food Check-Out Week. The latest statistics compiled by the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service indicate American families and individuals currently spend, on average, just 9.9 percent of their disposable personal income for food. Applying the current statistic to the calendar year means the average U.S. household will have earned enough disposable income – the portion of income available for spending or saving after taxes are paid – to pay for its annual food supply this week. In comparison to working 36 days to pay for food, Americans worked 77 days to pay their federal taxes, 62 days to pay for housing and household operation, and 52 days for health/medical care, according to The Tax Foundation....
Cattle quarantined after disease discovered For the first time since 1974, a reported case of bovine tuberculosis has been found in Colorado. Inspectors say a bull was sold from a Colorado owner in Douglas County to a meat packing facility in San Angelo, Texas. Colorado’s assistant state veterinarian, Keith Roehr, says evidence of the disease was discovered in the bull’s lungs during routine inspection of the carcass. Roehr says the bull’s meat was never moved beyond the facility. "The food supply is safe, the regular measures we have in place for meat inspection prevent any meat coming into the food chain that's infected,” said Roehr. The state has quarantined approximately 660 cattle from what Roehr calls “the herd of origin.” Roehr says any cow that had prolonged exposure to the bull, nose to nose specifically, may be infected....
Cattleman Calls On Others To Challenge Activists A Nebraska cattle producer and radio host is urging U.S. cattle producers to challenge anti-livestock activists through persistence and by becoming more visible and vocal. Trent Loos, who also is a syndicated radio personality from Loup City, Neb., in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association convention here, said producers need to engage with activists and "be ready to tell why they believe it's morally ethical to respectfully take the life of an animal to provide the essentials of life" to humans. "Put a face on food production," Loos said. Show up at protests and be visible and available because at least some who are there have never seen a farmer or rancher and are ready to talk, he said. Loos said it was difficult for the livestock industry to compete with the $120 million budget of the Humane Society of the U.S., but it was possible to make inroads with one-on-one meetings....
It's All Trew: Rawhide a versatile good Rawhide is defined as "the raw untreated skin of an animal, usually in a dried condition." The use of this crude leather dates back to the origins of man when he began using the by-products of food gathering. His supply of rawhide was replenished each time he killed an animal for food. The major uses of rawhide included clothing, housing, the making of tools and containers. This changed in the late 1870s with the birth of the Industrial Revolution. As the machines manufacturing war goods turned to making civilian goods, belting to drive these machines was in great demand. With the development of rubber-type materials still to be invented, the factories turned to leather belting to transfer power from overhead power shafts to the machines located below. The flint-hard, dried hides of the Great Plains buffalo were ideal if the hides were in proper condition. To attain this condition, the hunters had to stake the fresh hide down to the ground and scrape off the excess flesh. A poison solution was sprinkled over the hide to prevent insect damage. After two or more days, the hide was beaten with sticks to knock the dirt loose from the underside hair as buffalo loved to wallow in mud holes to protect against insects. The hide was turned over, sprinkled and left for another two days before folding with hair inside and tied into bales for transporting to market....

Monday, February 05, 2007

OPINION/COMMENTARY

A month into office, Idaho's Otter governs from his gut As a freshly minted lieutenant governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter caused a furor 20 years ago by vetoing a bill lifting Idaho's drinking age to 21 from 19 that lawmakers passed to keep the feds in Washington, D.C., from denying highway payments. Gov. Cecil Andrus had left town, and Otter, a 44-year-old just two months on the job, took a populist swipe at "usurpation ... of Idaho's sovereign power by the Congress" _ his words at the time. Andrus later boosted the drinking age anyway, bAAut Otter had made his mark, for better or for worse. A month into his term as Idaho's chief executive, the now 64-year-old Republican still governs from his gut, confounding some members of his own party by putting a chokehold on the Capitol expansion. He's won the love of wolf foes, saying he'll be the first to shoot one of the predators once federal protections get lifted. And he says he wants to build more dams on Idaho's rivers, to keep more water here. "People need answers," Otter told The Associated Press Friday. "Obviously, my remarks are going to be targeted at what they can expect me to do on issues of concern to them." Remarkably, critics and allies alike say very similar things about the three-term U.S. congressman and millionaire rancher, whose offices feature cowboy prints and gigantic rodeo belt buckles: He's real, and if there's something that strikes him as good horse sense, he'll speak up....
Oil trucks are taking their toll on county roads Looking out onto the gravel road that runs along his ranch, Allan Schmidt sees something new to his serene southwest corner of this rural county: Heavy traffic. One after another, large trucks rumble by Schmidt's property, kicking up clouds of dust onto his cattle and wearing away at the gravel road. "Before, it was just us, the mailman, and the school bus," said Schmidt, who's been ranching the land since 1977. The surge of traffic in Dunn County is a direct result of the latest energy boom. As world oil prices climbed throughout 2005 and 2006, western North Dakota has come alive with oil rigs and pump jacks for the first time since the early 1980s. But the stream of heavy trucks that haul drilling machinery in and oil out have created a headache for both ranchers and county officials, who are scrambling to maintain the roads with limited budgets and small road crews....
Conflicting leases roil Legislature Conflicting bids over state land leases, and whether prior lease holders should get preferential treatment at the expense of public education revenues has spilled over into the Wyoming Legislature. House Bill 318 would generally point away from conservation groups willing to pay two-to-three times as much for state land leases than the livestock producers who have long held those leases. And one of the livestock producers who could lose some long-time leases includes Jim Magagna, executive director of the Wyoming Stock Growers and one of the state’s foremost advocates for agricultural interests. Magagna was targeted deliberately, said Jon Marvel, executive director of the conservation group Western Watersheds Project. “Mr. Magagna is the representative and the face of Wyoming livestock interests,” said Marvel. “We’ve bid on state grazing leases to symbolize the giveaway leasing to ranchers.” Marvel said he’d like to see greater competition over grazing leases, just as there is wide-open competition for mineral leases....
Cattle rancher wins conservation award Darrell Wood of Pete's Creek Partnership, one of the founding ranches of Panorama Meats, Inc. -- an Angus grass-fed beef company based in Vina -- has received one of three 2006 National Wetlands Conservation Awards from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wood received the award for his management of the Pete's Creek wetland and riparian restoration project on 1,262 acres of the partnership's ranch, located in Lassen County just north of Susanville. The land was also certified as organic grazing land for panorama grass-fed beef cattle in July 2006. Wood is a fifth-generation California cattle rancher whose family has been grazing cattle on this land almost continually since the 1930s. The annual award recognizes the contributions by private-sector individuals and organizations to the development, restoration and enhancement of wetlands....
Column - The Withering of the American Environmental Movement A kind of political narcolepsy has settled over the American environmental movement. Call it eco-ennui. You may know the feeling: restlessness, lack of direction, evaporating budgets, diminished expectations, a simmering discontent. The affliction appears acute, possibly systemic. Unfortunately, the antidote isn't as simple as merely filing a new lawsuit in the morning or skipping that PowerPoint presentation to join a road blockade for the day. No, something much deeper may be called for: a rebellion of the heart. Just like in the good old days, not that long ago. What is it, precisely, that's going on? Was the environmental movement bewitched by eight years of Bruce Babbitt and Al Gore? Did it suffer an allergic reaction to the New Order of Things? Are we simply adrift in a brief lacuna in the evolution of the conservation movement, one of those Gouldian (Stephen Jay) pauses before a new creative eruption? Environmentalism has never thrived on an adherence to etiquette or quiet entreaties. Yet, that became the mode of operation during Clinton and it has continued through the rougher years of Bush and Cheney. Direct confrontation of governmental authority and corporate villainy was once our operation metier. No longer.....
Mont. sues for more Wyo water For rancher Art Hayes of Birney, Mont., adequate water is the "lifeblood" needed to turn lifeless ground into fertile fields for his cattle. After seven years of drought, that lifeblood is running short. Yet as the nearby Tongue River dropped to a trickle in recent years, Hayes looked upstream, toward Wyoming, and saw that things were different -- greener, he says -- across the state line. "They always seem to be irrigating there," he said Thursday. "They're holding that water up, and that water should be coming to Montana. We're in a water crisis here, and it's getting worse and worse and worse." Responding to the complaints of Hayes and others, the state of Montana filed a lawsuit against Wyoming over water rights on Thursday in the U.S. Supreme Court. The suit claims Wyoming's excessive use of water from the Tongue and a second river, the Powder, is leaving downstream ranches and farms dry....
Bill would pay to retire water rights A bill to launch a new program to pay irrigators willing to retire water rights along the upper Arkansas river drew the tentative backing of farmer and rancher groups testifying to a Senate committee Thursday. A Kansas Farm Bureau spokesman said the effort could help the region avoid further state regulation of a depleting groundwater supply and help to cushion the economic effect of declining water levels. "Clearly (the program) will not be for everyone, but shouldn't those individuals holding the water rights have the opportunity to make that decision?" said Steve Swaffar, Farm Bureau director of natural resources. But farm-related businesses opposed Senate Bill 123, which authorizes the start of the program in 10 southwest counties along the river. They pointed to a Kansas State University study showing an $8.7 million economic ripple effect on local communities from removing 100,000 acres of crop production....
Proposed ban on 'canned' hunting raises heated debate A proposal to ban private hunting preserves in North Dakota would infringe on private property rights and hurt tourism, opponents say. Supporters of the idea say "canned" hunting is unethical and may contribute to the spread of animal diseases. The debate in the North Dakota Senate's Natural Resources Committee on Thursday had people on both sides claiming that former President Theodore Roosevelt, who ranched and hunted in the North Dakota Badlands, would favor their position. "I believe he'd turn over in his grave if he knew what was going on," said Gary Masching, a Bismarck hunter who opposes game farms. Sen. Connie Triplett, D-Grand Forks, said if state lawmakers were to infringe on hunting rights, "I think Teddy Roosevelt would crawl out of his grave and come get us." The proposed bill would ban fee hunting on so-called "high fence" game farms. Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable by 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. After a hearing Thursday, the Natural Resources Committee recommended that the bill be defeated. The full Senate will vote on the measure later....
N.D. Saltwater Spill Prompts Questions A year after a ruptured pipeline spilled nearly 1 million gallons of saltwater into a northwestern North Dakota creek, Ned Hermanson is giving up. He intends to move his 400 cows to pastures far from the oil fields here, away from one of the biggest environmental disasters in state history. "I live day-to-day next to a neighbor that's an oil company, and they're a bad neighbor," said Hermanson, a wiry man who dips tobacco and wears a softball-sized rodeo belt buckle. "Life is too short to be mad every day at them, so I'm leaving." Officials say the plight faced by Hermanson and a dozen ranchers affected by the spill shows the need to pay more attention to wastewater pipelines nationwide. Nathan Wiser, an environmental scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver, said there are no specific federal regulations for saltwater disposal lines....
Bill favors wolf, grizzly hunts A Senate committee unanimously endorsed legislation Thursday that would allow the hunting of wolves and grizzly bears in Montana once the animals are removed from federal protections. The bill by Sen. Joe Balyeat, R-Bozeman, drew no opposition in a Senate Fish and Game Committee hearing, and is backed by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It now goes to the Senate floor for further debate. "Will this solve the wolf problem? Unfortunately, no. ... But I do believe it's one piece of the puzzle to try to control their numbers," Balyeat said. Wolves were reintroduced to the northern Rockies a decade ago after being hunted to near-extinction. More than 1,200 now live in the region. Balyeat's bill creates wolf hunting licenses for residents and out-of-state hunters and sets up an annual lottery for wolf and grizzly bear tags. It also establishes restitution for illegal wolf killings and includes wolves in state game wasting rules....
Goodbye, Bighorn Canyon? Sandy gullies and endless sagebrush offer little hint of the watersports Mecca once envisioned for this small town near the Montana border. Back when the Big Horn River flowed strong out of the distant Wind River Mountains, it backed up seven miles from the Yellowtail Dam in Montana south to the outskirts of Lovell -- a man-made lake that once drew almost half a million visitors annually. But drought has choked the Big Horn going on eight years, chopping 30 miles off Bighorn Lake in recent summers and prompting tourists to vacation elsewhere. And now a U.S. senator from Montana -- anxious to tap the reservoir to feed a downstream trout fishery -- could crush Lovell's recreational aspirations for good. Flexing his newfound muscle as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Democrat Max Baucus has introduced legislation that could further deplete the lake. It would force the federal Bureau of Reclamation to ensure a steady flow of water out of Yellowtail Dam, drought notwithstanding....
Wild horse roundup ends Federal cowboys were able to round up about 920 wild horses last month in southwest Wyoming before bad weather shut down gathering operations this week, officials said. The roundup fell short of the Bureau of Land Management's goal of removing about 1,400 wild horses from the area in an effort to achieve herd management objectives. The agency permanently removed 846 of the horses gathered in the operation from the range, officials said. Another 41 mares were treated with a fertility control vaccine and returned to the area. BLM spokeswoman Cindy Wertz said the gathering operations aimed to reduce two overpopulated wild horse herds that roam eastern Sweetwater County within the adjacent Salt Wells and Adobe Town herd management units. Wyoming's wild horse population in recent years has reached as high as 7,000 animals. That's more than double the BLM's target management level of 3,263 wild horses statewide. Most of the state's wild horse populations are concentrated in southwest Wyoming....
Refuge plan: Cut elk, bison numbers People watching elk on the National Elk Refuge will likely see one-third fewer elk there over the next 15 years, after some animals are moved off feedlines and others are hunted. The reduction, from a target of 7,500 elk to a goal of 5,000 animals, is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's plan to manage elk and bison in the area. That plan has been in the works for a decade, and a final version was released Thursday. Bison appear to take the biggest hit in numbers, with wildlife managers looking to trim their numbers by more than half on lands around Jackson Hole. There are now about 1,200 bison on the refuge, and the management plan aims for 500. That reduction will come through hunting starting this fall. Elk numbers will also be reduced through hunting -- primarily the Grand Teton segment of the Jackson elk herd. Some hunting may be allowed on the southern end of the refuge near the town of Jackson....
Outdoor groups rally behind proposal for oil, gas well guidelines A state lawmaker said he hopes to create a national model for balancing wildlife protection and energy development when he introduces a bill laying out guidelines for softening the impact of oil and gas drilling. Supporters say 55 environmental, hunting and fishing groups are behind the proposal. Democratic Rep. Dan Gibbs of Silverthorne, the sponsor, said wildlife and energy are both important to Colorado’s economy. “I think we can strike a balance that’s reasonable,” said Gibbs, a hunter. The guidelines include reducing the amount of land disturbed by development; speeding restoration; and encouraging consultation between energy companies, landowners and wildlife officials. The bill would apply to private and state land, but not federal, where much of the development in western Colorado is taking place. “I think this could be a model for potential federal legislation as well,” Gibbs said....
Forest official: Give rules chance New rules doing away with formal environmental impact statements for long-term forest management plans make them more relevant to the public and the U.S. Forest Service head for the five-state Rocky Mountain Region said he hopes skeptics give them a chance. Critics say the new rules undermine environmental protection, but Regional Forester Rick Cables says he hopes foresters get the benefit of the doubt as they update closely watched management plans under the new set of rules. The Forest Service announced the new rules in December, saying management plans have no environmental effects and that environmental reviews can be done when individual projects envisioned in the plan are considered. "The rationale is that the plans are not making decisions that affect the land. The plans are more oriented toward sitting down with the public and agreeing on a desired future condition for the landscape," Cables said....
Experts see hope for timber industry Despite such recent news such as the closure of a Weyerhaeuser sawmill near Lebanon, economists and observers say the long-term outlook for the timber industry in Oregon is healthy. The harvest level, though, will be lower than the mid-1980s highs, and the current housing slowdown will mean a rough patch, they say. "It's a new stable industry, and it's growing," said Richard Haynes, an economist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Portland. "The region has recovered from what happened in the 1990s." In 1990, the wood manufacturing industry in Oregon employed 46,100 people. That was 3.7 percent of a 1990 nonfarm payroll of 1.25 million workers. In 2006, 32,100 people were employed in the industry, 1.9 percent of the nonfarm payroll of 1.71 million. The number of logging jobs in Oregon has fallen from 11,300 in 1990 to 7,000 in 2006. The state continues as the nation's largest producer of lumber: 31 percent more in 2004 than Washington, its nearest competitor, according to the Western Wood Products Association....
A riveting sight: 100 bald eagles on way to breakfast Dark sky, silent flight: The bald eagles lift off from their night forest roosts and rise over you in rafts as they head to the frozen valley floor of the Klamath Basin and their daily duck feast. Their eight-foot wingspans are silhouettes against the dawn sky and their white heads glisten in the muted light. In one 20-minute sequence, if you know the exact spot to wait, you might see 75 to 100 or bald eagles fly right over the top of you, one of winter's most electrifying wildlife scenes. Put this one on your life list. It's a long, grueling trip to the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge, longer yet to see this spectacular dawn scene. But it's difficult for me to imagine having the gift of life on this world and not seeing the en masse flight of the bald eagles even once....
Railroad grant paved way for huge land holdings The road runs arrow-straight, fresh blacktop laid smooth through logged-over forest, a string pulled tight between Montana's past and its future. At one end of the road: a hole tunneled through mountain, evidence of the railroad that once followed this same track west. At the other: a soaring rock and timber entryway, rustic chic highlighted in wrought iron. Welcome to Meadowbrooke, a brand new Old West subdivision slowly rising in the woods west of Kalispell. That it's being developed by the real-estate arm of Plum Creek Timber Co. is a sure sign of things to come. That its primary artery sits directly atop the old railroad bed is an indication of how things came to be. “The past is driving the future on these lands,” said George Draffen. “If you want to understand what's happening, you have to understand what happened.” Draffen is a researcher and writer, co-author of “Railroads and Clearcuts,” and according to him what happened - and what's happening - was and is the hijacking of the public trust. “The two million acres Plum Creek started with were federal lands,” Draffen said, “public land they got for free from the citizens of the United States.” Not surprisingly, Plum Creek president and CEO Rick Holley has a different take on history....
Timber in transition: Booming values shift Plum Creek from logging to real estate Used to be, the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce would get together once a year for a field trip into the woods. They called them “timber tours,” and according to chamber president Joe Unterreiner, “early on, these actually were timber tours.” But those were the days when the business of timber was the business of western Montana. Times have changed. On a soggy afternoon last fall, Unterreiner arrived on forestland owned by Plum Creek Timber Co. for a very different sort of tour. He called it “timber lite,” adding that today's Chamber of Commerce field trips emphasize “the changing economics of what's happening with timberlands.” Montana has been discovered, he said, its real estate is commanding premium prices, and companies such as Plum Creek are realizing their trees are worth more vertical than horizontal. So they're selling off big chunks of land to developers - and developing other pieces on their own....
Firefighter Pleads Guilty To Arson One of three former Mill Creek firefighters charged in November with setting fires was sentenced this week. Dewey Alvin Bell, 22, pleaded guilty in Carteret County Superior Court to two counts of second-degree arson and one count each of malicious use of an explosive device, burning personal property, and burning a boat. Bell received suspended prison sentences on Monday for each of the offenses and will be under a 60-month supervised probation period. The first six months he will face intensive supervision, said Jim Parker, Judicial District 3B manager for the N.C. Division of Community Corrections. Over the next five years, Bell will also be required to participate in paying the total $46,000 restitution to the victims in the case, Parker said. Depending on the outcome of their cases, the two others accused in the Mill Creek arsons would share in paying the restitution....
Grazing fees down from 2006 The fee for grazing livestock on federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service is dropping this year, the BLM announced Friday. Effective March 1, the fee will be $1.35 per animal unit month, down from $1.56 last year, the Forest Service said. An animal unit month is the amount of forage needed to sustain a cow and a calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. The fee is adjusted annually to take into account private grazing rates, cattle prices and the cost of livestock production. It applies to public land in 16 Western states administered by the BLM or the Forest Service. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming....
AEI Critiques of Warming Questioned A Washington-based think tank has been soliciting critiques of the just-released international assessment of the evidence on climate change, a move that prompted some academics and environmentalists to accuse the group of seeking to distort the latest evidence for global warming. Advocacy groups such as Greenpeace and the Public Interest Research Group questioned why the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has offered $10,000 to academics willing to contribute to a book on climate- change policy, an overture that was first reported Friday in London's Guardian newspaper. AEI visiting scholar Kenneth Green -- one of two researchers who has sought to commission the critiques -- said in an interview that his group is examining the policy debate on global warming, not the science. "It's completely policy-oriented," said Green, adding that a third of the academics AEI solicited for the project are interested in participating. "Somebody wants to distort this."....
Enzi, Senators Say ‘Whoa’ To USDA Beef Import Rule The United States Department of Agriculture should hold up on its proposed plan to expand beef imports from Canada, according to U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and John Thune, R-S.D. Permitting the importation of live Canadian cattle born after March 1, 1999 and beef from animals of any age, would harm American producers economically and further endanger the U.S. market with the threat of mad cow disease. The senators sent a Feb. 2 letter to USDA Secretary Mike Johanns, urging him not to implement the rule. The text of the letter follows....
Bushels vs. beef Corn prices are at 10-year highs, but not everyone is profiting in farm country. Nearly 56 percent of U.S. corn is fed to livestock. And when feed prices go up, profits for local pork and beef producers go down. The explosive demand for corn to make ethanol fuel is sending corn prices to above $4 a bushel for the first time in about a decade, generating higher income for farmers strictly in the business of growing grain. Prices of soybeans, also a source of feed and biodiesel fuel, have risen, though less rapidly. Meanwhile, livestock producers are making adjustments, such as using alternative feed sources or selling livestock at lower weights at market, until either livestock prices rise or corn prices lower. How a livestock producer adjusts depends on the operation's overhead and set-up....
Inner city school kids adopt Montana loggers, farmers Plywood does not just appear at Home Depot and milk does not come from a carton, but there are children in our country who do not realize this. With the majority of the United States growing up in urban cultures far from the people who produce the food they need to survive, there is great disconnect and misunderstanding between consumers and producers. Provider Pals is an organization that is trying to educate the youth of our nation and hopefully create a future where decisions are based on reality rather than rumor. It is an urban-rural cultural exchange program building a bridge between urban and rural America. More than a decade ago, Bruce Vincent of Libby, Mont., was talking to a classroom of kids in Seeley Lake, Mont., about the life of a logger and forestry. As he was leaving the room the teacher mentioned the following day a woman with a wolf was going to visit and the kids would “adopt” this wolf. Vincent knew she was not only bringing a wolf to that class, but politics, as well. She would likely tell the kids that mining, ranching and logging were bad for the wolf, he recalled. “It occurred to me the only thing we had to offer the American public is us,” said Vincent. “I asked the teacher, ‘Would you like to adopt a logger?'”....
Dog Saves Craig County Rancher An Oklahoma ranch family credits their dog with saving a life. The News on 6’s Emory Bryan reports on Jackie, the hero dog. The “Circle Lazy C Ranch” is home of national champion Appaloosa horses and some Texas Longhorn Cattle. But it's the ranch dog, Jackie, that is the most valuable animal on the ranch. “She's been a sweetheart since day one,” rancher Bill Cass said. Cass runs the ranch; his wife Ethelyn runs everything else. Marked on her calendar is the cold and icy day they almost lost Bill. “I was just a churning in a big ‘ol hurry and my feet went out from under me,” said Cass. “I went as high as my head, my feet did, and there I laid.” Cass was going out to feed the horses, and he's not the kind of fella that carries a cell phone, but Jackie was by his side....
Son of Ore. rancher won't be charged in shootout One of two survivors of a deadly shooting on a northeast Oregon ranch will face no charges, the county district attorney said Thursday. Travis Beach, 28, accompanied his father Jan. 18 to a ranch where they intended to retrieve four cows, suspecting they had been rustled, Wallowa County Sheriff Fred Steen said. The father, Dennis Beach, and a caretaker at the ranch, Shane Huntsman, died as a result of a confrontation. Steen said a state brand inspector determined the cattle belonged to Beach. Huntsman and the elder Beach were shot by the same .30-caliber rifle, Steen said. Steen told the La Grande Observer that one scenario under consideration is that Huntsman shot Dennis Beach; Travis Beach and Huntsman fought; and then Travis Beach shot Huntsman....
On the Edge of Common Sense: Old westerns offered a higher standard An open letter to Hollywood from a cowboy: Making a western movie implies an obligation to a higher standard. Louis L'Amour, Gene Autry, Zane Gray, Roy Rogers, John Ford and John Wayne understood this. They acknowledged the responsibility they bore to the generations of young minds who loved their movies. We would be hard put today to name a western movie you could take a 12-year-old to. "Brokeback Mountain"? "Unforgiven"? "All The Pretty Horses"? The only new western TV show is "Deadwood." As time marches on, our children have become more sophisticated. Which, unfortunately, means profanity, lewdness, explicit violence and egregious horror are part of their everyday experience as a grade-schooler. Got cable? I'm sure this sounds like a disgruntled rant, but it's more like wishful thinking. Why is it necessary to unearth the feet of clay of our heroes? No one knows better then real cowboys that the image portrayed in the old westerns was made through rose-colored glasses....

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Always bet on the cowgirl

Julie Carter

Donna and JoAnn were suffering with a little cash flow problem. It was suppertime and no cash meant no meal so when a challenge was offered, the challenge was accepted. The gleam in the girls' eyes came free of charge.

The cowgirls had been hauling pretty steady this particular year. Getting to every breakaway roping at every punkin' rollin' rodeo close enough to get to and both were picking up regular checks, but not always first place.

They tuned on their horses with a string of calves at the feedlot where Donna worked and spent their evenings practicing their roping. With a long schedule of rodeos ahead of them, they made some dedicated plans to do some serious winning.

Both gals knew that meant paying their dues in the practice pen. And they knew the skills that needed honed were getting out of the roping box quicker and cleaner and throwing the loop sooner.

A long rainy spell hit the Texas panhandle and was wreaking havoc on their practice sessions. Undaunted, they headed to the only covered arena in the area. It belonged to a guy in town that let the local feedlot and wheat cattle punchers practice on off nights if they brought their own cattle. Donna and JoAnn loaded their calves and their horses in the trailer and set off to take advantage of this deal.

This gathering spot for the area punchers drew in mostly the young guns that had come to practice their team roping. With only a little disdain showing , they would periodically agree to "rest a spell" and let the "little cowgirls" practice for a little bit. Their real intent was to get their kicks making fun of them.

These two cowgirls look like any ordinary person who might like to ride a little on the weekend but, in fact, they were both ranch raised, feedlot hardened and competitive down to their Victoria Secrets. Their seasoned skills didn't show that much and they weren't the type to flaunt it.

They loaded their calves in the chute, pulled their cinches, shook out their ropes and proceeded with their practice session. The cowpuncher audience stood by ready to cheer or jeer.

Their plan, no matter who was watching, was to concentrate on their timing with the barrier and getting rid of their loop at least one swing sooner. With all their attention on "the plan," their accuracy wasn't up to par, but they were getting accomplished what they'd come to do. Catching wasn't their problem when it counted.

The young guns that were lined up to watch didn't know this pair could catch a shadow in the dark if that was what needed done. So in their ignorance and arrogance, the offers for a bet or two began.

Big spenders that they were, on puncher's wages, they gave the girls a hard time and suggested that the winners of a match roping would buy the hamburgers. With stomachs growling and pockets empty, the girls agreed. The bet was on.

It wasn't a pretty sight but after a five-head average with each of the women catching all and the guys coming up a little short, the cowboys, appearing as slow learners, offered a double or nothing bet.

As the sun set on West Texas, the girls were downing burgers, fries, and Godzilla-size cokes, compliments of the jeering section.

Not that anyone would notice, the punchers got a good lesson.

If somebody looks like a cowgirl, smells like a cowgirl and acts like a cowgirl - don't bet against her. It'll cost you money.

© Julie Carter 2007
OPINION/COMMENTARY

Property Rights

The January edition of "Imprimis" contains an important speech by former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew P. Napolitano titled "Property Rights After the Kelo Decision." For those who haven't kept up, the Kelo decision is the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision that upheld the city of New London, Connecticut's condemnation of the property of one private party so that another private party could use it to build an office facility. Such a decision was a flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of the Fifth Amendment, which reads in part, "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." Public use, according to the Constitution's framers, means uses such as roads, bridges, and forts. While most Americans appreciate the concept of yours and mine, Judge Napolitano's speech gives it greater focus. Formerly a law professor, Napolitano says, "When teaching law students the significance of private property, we tell them that each owner of such property has something called a 'bundle of rights.' The first of these is the right to use the property. The second is the right to alienate the property. The third and greatest is the right to exclude people from the property." Can the government force one to sell his property? James Madison said yes, so long as it was for a public use and the owner was paid a fair market value. Thomas Jefferson was opposed to a person being forced to sell his property for a public use, arguing that the essence of private property is the right to exclude anyone, including government, from the property. But Madison's view prevailed, hence the Fifth Amendment provision. Napolitano concluded his speech pointing out something that few Americans appreciate. Natural rights do not come from government; they spring from our humanity. Or, as our founders put it, we are endowed by our "Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," the latter meaning property. We establish governments to secure these rights....


The other 'green' in global warming

The up-tick in global warming propaganda in recent days is to set the stage for the release of the Fourth Assessment Report from the International Panel on Climate Change. Surprise, surprise, the report will say the sky is falling – faster and faster. For people who have watched this process since the beginning, this report, at least the executive summary of the report, is mostly hogwash, wordsmithed by policy wonks and media specialists to scare the gas out of the economy. The First Assessment Report was developed by a fairly balanced group of scientists from around the world and released in 1990. The report was quite extensive and dealt primarily with capturing and storing carbon dioxide. The Second Assessment Report was adopted by a fairly balanced group of participating scientists in December 1995. Then, the lead author of the report, B. D. Santor, acting with the consent of the co-chairman of the Working Group, John Houghton, and with the consent of the executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Michael Cutajar, changed the report significantly, without the approval of the scientists. Dr. Freidrich Seitz, president emeritus of Rockefeller University and former president of the National Academy of Sciences, said: "I have never witnessed a more disturbing corruption of the peer-review process than the events that led to this IPCC report. Nearly all the changes worked to remove hints of the skepticism with which many scientists regard global warming claims." A hundred distinguished scientists, meeting in Leipzig, Germany, released a joint statement July 10, 1996, which said: "There is still no scientific consensus on the subject of climate change. On the contrary, most scientists now accept the fact that actual observations from earth satellites show no climate warming whatsoever." From that point forward, any scientist who dared to offer research results that did not affirm the conclusions of the IPCC has been denied invitations to participate in the IPCC studies, denied funding and/or denigrated publicly by politically motivated scientists and/or the media. Any scientist who dares express skepticism is at once denounced as a pawn for the oil and coal industry....


The Greatest Environmental Threat Ever

The environmental movement needs to be urgently informed concerning a new threat to the planet. This assault on nature does not come from without but from within the very people who are attempting to "save" the Earth. The grave danger is something more horrendous and subtle than global warming. The new contamination of Gaea could not only destroy hundreds of ecosystems but could possibly end all life permanently. This revolting scheme is carefully planned by a dark entity urging to destroy everything dear to tree lovers. The creature is far worse than human beings, more threatening than a meteor slamming into the Earth, and greedier than a strip-mining industrialist. If you haven’t guessed by now....it’s...the Giant Panda! The environmental movement for years has been deceived by this leech on the globe. The animal appears so cute and cuddly that we have fallen prey to its coercive manipulation. Behind those adorable jet black eyes, a monster dwells. Environmentalists constantly attempt to preserve "natural" ecology. Of course, this implies that human beings aren’t part of nature. Everything else is a part of nature to them. A coyote can kill its prey. A woodchuck can cut down a tree. But suddenly when a human does either, a great ecological "crime" occurs. The act is a supposed malicious unnatural abomination that must be stopped. The human species has once again trampled upon natural ecology. The Giant Panda only exists because of human involvement. It could not survive in a natural selection process...Now that you know the treacherous and deceptive essence of the beast, I can continue about the doomsday rolling ever closer. The most vile gluttonous creatures on Earth known as Americans consume at most about 6 pounds of food a day, about 2,200 pounds of food a year. The larger giant pandas waste up to 40 pounds of bamboo per day in a 10- to 16-hour shift of endless habitat destruction totaling almost 15,000 pounds of bamboo per year!....


If the Cap Fits

The Climate Action Partnership, a group of 10 major companies that made headlines this week with its call for a national limit on carbon dioxide emissions, would surely feign shock at such an accusation. After all, their plea was carefully timed to coincide with President Bush's State of the Union capitulation on global warming, and it had the desired PR effect. The media dutifully declared that "even" business now recognized the climate threat. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who begins marathon hearings on warming next week, lauded the corporate angels for thinking of the "common good." There was a time when the financial press understood that companies exist to make money. And it happens that the cap-and-trade climate program these 10 jolly green giants are now calling for is a regulatory device designed to financially reward companies that reduce CO2 emissions, and punish those that don't. Four of the affiliates--Duke, PG&E, FPL and PNM Resources--are utilities that have made big bets on wind, hydroelectric and nuclear power. So a Kyoto program would reward them for simply enacting their business plan, and simultaneously sock it to their competitors. Duke also owns Cinergy, which relies heavily on dirty, CO2-emitting coal plants. But Cinergy will soon have to replace those plants with cleaner equipment. Under a Kyoto, it'll get paid for its trouble. DuPont has been plunging into biofuels, the use of which would soar under a cap. Somebody has to cobble together all these complex trading deals, so say hello to Lehman Brothers. Caterpillar has invested heavily in new engines that generate "clean energy." British Petroleum is mostly doing public penance for its dirty oil habit, but also gets a plug for its own biofuels venture. Finally, there's General Electric, whose CEO Jeffrey Immelt these days spends as much time in Washington as Connecticut. GE makes all the solar equipment and wind turbines (at $2 million a pop) that utilities would have to buy under a climate regime. GE's revenue from environmental products long ago passed the $10 billion mark, and it doesn't take much "ecomagination" to see why Mr. Immelt is leading the pack of climate profiteers....


Wal-Mart Plan to Force Suppliers to Implement Green Agenda is Bad Business

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) today criticized Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott for his speech in London last night before Prince Charles and 400 business leaders, in which he said a key component of the company’s campaign to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, allegedly responsible for global warming, will be to push its business suppliers into reducing their emissions. Wal-Mart (WMT) had previously announced that it will pressure its 60,000 suppliers to adhere to environmental mandates. “It is the responsibility of every corporation to be more sustainable,” said Scott. Scott insists that Wal-Mart is not trying to coerce its suppliers but rather is “a cooperative effort of encouragement and support.” “This is simply not true,” says John Carlisle, Director of Policy at NLPC. “Scott and other Wal-Mart executives have said that companies that don’t meet the environmental mandates run a serious risk of losing their contracts.” Wal-Mart has devised a scorecard to grade the environmental progress of suppliers which Scott says the company will use to “pick the ones moving in the right direction.” Likewise, Tim Yatsko, Wal-Mart Senior Vice President for Transportation, is on record as saying, “We have made it clear that all things being equal, we’ll give business to operators who show they’re fully engaged” in fuel efficiency efforts....
ROPIN' THE BLOGGIES

Jacob Sullum says the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit appears skeptical of the President's claimed authority to indefinitely detain enemy combatants...Jeff Taylor tells us NFL attorneys have shut down the Fall Creek Baptist Church's planned Super Bowl party....Brian Doherty links to an article in Rolling Stone that asserts Al Gore would be the best candidate for the Democrats....Justin Ptak reports the Super Bowl Champs caps and T-shirts for the team that loses will be locked away and then shipped to a developing nation in Africa....Gary Galles has reported the savings rate for the U.S. was a minus one percent as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Galles says there are "serious measurement shortcomings" with this figure and what the politicians may do will make things worse...William L. Anderson posts that the Republican enery policy was "subsidies and rhetoric" and the new energy policy of the Democrats is "to lower fuel prices by forcing up fuel prices"....Manuel Lora links to an article about a man who won an $138,000 trip to space. But wait, along comes the IRS and says that is income and he owes $25,000 in taxes. The man had to cancel the trip....and finally, Amy Ridenour lays waste to a Washington Post Op-Ed on global warming.

Friday, February 02, 2007

NYRI to Sue NY Over Eminent Domain Law

The company that wants to build a high-voltage transmission line from central New York to the New York City suburbs said Thursday it will ask a federal court to throw out a state law that would restrict its use of eminent domain to secure land for the project. Albany-based New York Regional Interconnect Inc. says the proposed 200-mile, $1.6 billion line from the Utica area to the lower Hudson Valley would deliver electricity to an area where power demand is expected to outstrip supply in a few years. In October, Gov. George Pataki created a major obstacle to the project by signing a law restricting NYRI's use of eminent domain. Without the ability to force property sales, the company would have little chance of securing all the necessary land to complete the line, project manager Bill May said. In a suit to be filed in federal court in Albany Thursday, NYRI contends the law discriminates against the company and violates its rights under the U.S. Constitution. NYRI also argues that the new law infringes its rights to equal protection and due process. "The law seeks to individually punish NYRI for a project intended for a public need," May said....
WOLVES ON A KILLING SPREE PROMPT COUNTY TO TAKE ACTION

Wolf incidents in Catron County are on the rise and Catron County’s Commissioners, who declared an emergency situation in February, 2006, are now determined to take firmer action to protect the citizens here. “These wolves are on a killing spree,” said Catron County Commission Chairman Ed Wehrheim recently. “They killed a horse on Whitewater Mesa just the other day, the second horse in just one month.” Wehrheim is gravely concerned because these are just more incidents in what appears to him and the other Commissioners to be a never-ending spiral of killings of animals that the Commissioners feel will ultimately end with the attack by a wolf on a human being. The County passed the emergency declaration last year primarily to put a halt to the economic devastation caused by the presence of Mexican wolves which not only hunt wild game, but also kill cattle, horses, dogs, cats and other domestic animals. Now it appears that the situation has become more than an economic emergency and has escalated to a high level of risk for human lives in Catron County. At base is the problem that many of these wolves are habituated to humans. This means that, unlike normal wild animals, habituated wolves are unafraid to be around humans and areas where humans spend time. It becomes more and more difficult to haze away habituated wolves when they have their sights set on an easy meal - which may be a family pet. This is just what happened with the Miller family on their Link Ranch in Catron County south of Wall Lake - not far from a dude ranch where families with children vacation. Last November, the Millers’ eight year old daughter went out to the corral near the house to let the horses in to feed them grain. Right in front of her, the alpha male of the Aspen wolf pack attacked the family dog which had accompanied her to the corral. The wolf was unfazed by the Millers’ attempts to chase it off the dog, which was only saved from death by the fact that it was wearing a large collar. This was the second attack on one of the Miller’s dogs in just weeks. Then, early in January, wolves trapped the Miller’s daughter’s horse, Six, in the same horse pen, where Six had run for safety. There was blood everywhere. If this was a typical wolf kill, Six would have been torn apart and eaten while still alive. Hopefully the Miller’s daughter is unaware of that fact. The wolves continue to stalk the rest of the Miller horses, sometimes chasing them for miles. “The horses are back at our house but so are the wolves,” Mark Miller reported last week. “As of this morning, the wolves are all around the house and the horses are huddled in a corner of our property.” Miller went on to express his concern for his daughter’s emotional health, since at eight years old, she cannot help but be aware that if her dogs can be attacked and her horse killed, she might be the next victim....
Catron County considers wolf ordinance

Federal biologists responsible for reintroducing the endangered Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico and Arizona can decide when and how to trap or eliminate the animals if they become troublesome. But Catron County commissioners are considering an ordinance that would let them in on the decision making, according to a copyright story in Friday's Albuquerque Journal. Catron County Manager Bill Aymar said a growing number of incidents in which wolves have killed pets or livestock and menaced residents has led commissioners to think about taking action. "If you're flying an airplane and your helmet is on fire, you're going to deal with it," he said. "And we are having experiences day to day with wolves being close." County Attorney Ron Shortes said he has received six drafts of the ordinance from the county's consultant on natural resource management. In general, the measure would allow the commission to issue an order to remove from the county or kill a problem wolf. Shortes said he's trying to determine whether such a measure has solid legal footing. Aymar said the commission would hold a public hearing before taking action on the ordinance. Last February, the commission declared that an economic and agricultural state of emergency existed because of the presence and depredations of the wolves....

Thursday, February 01, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Phone 505.773.4897
Email: lif.strand@gmail.com


CATRON COUNTY TO APPROVE LETHAL TAKING OF MEXICAN WOLF
Commissioners Will Approve Ordinance next Wednesday


Catron County, New Mexico. Citing the rising number of close encounters with wolves, particularly where children are involved, the Catron County Commissioners approved a resolution on Wednesday, January 17, which sets the stage for enacting a county-wide ordinance allowing the Commissioners to give the go-ahead to kill Mexican wolves which threaten human lives.

The Catron County Commission agenda for the next Commission meeting on Wednesday, January 24 in Reserve, New Mexico, includes approval of an ordinance which defines the circumstances under which the County may issue a “Dispatch Order”, which is direction issued by the Catron County Commission for physical removal of a wolf by lethal means from within the borders of Catron County. The Dispatch Order will instruct the County’s Wolf Incident Investigator, Jess Carey, to notify the US Wildlife Service to remove an identified wolf from the County within twenty four hours, or Carey is authorized to execute the removal himself. The Order is meant to make sure that the identified wolf is permanently removed, so that the threat is eliminated and the wolf will not have any opportunity to re-enter the boundaries of Catron County.

Carey says that an attack on a human, particularly a child or an elderly person, is inevitable at the rate the incidents of wolf attack are occurring on dogs, cats and other domestic animals which live close to or with humans. In November, for instance, a dog was attacked by a wolf within several feet of an eight year old girl. The Commissioners and Carey agree that existing rules and standard operating procedures for the Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction Project are not sufficient to ensure protection of humans and that the County has the right and the obligation to protect its citizens.

For more information contact Bill Aymar, Catron County Manager, 505.533.6462 ccmanager@gilanet.com
NEWS ROUNDUP

Wyoming begins second year of test-and-slaughter program State wildlife managers captured and tested 79 adult elk for brucellosis this week, the second year of a pilot test-and-slaughter program that Wyoming hopes will reduce the prevalence of the disease. Thirteen of the elk tested positive for brucellosis and were shipped off to slaughter, according to a news release Wednesday from the state Game and Fish Department. Brucellosis is a disease that can cause pregnant elk, cattle and bison to abort their fetuses. Ranchers who worry about the elk spreading the disease to cattle support the test-and-slaughter program. But some environmentalists oppose the program, saying eliminating state elk feedgrounds would be a better way of controlling the disease....
Death of Horse Blamed on Endangered Wolf Pack A horse belonging to a Catron County, N.M., family has been killed by a pack of endangered Mexican gray wolves, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Mark Miller and his family returned to their homestead on the Diamond Creek in southwestern New Mexico about three weeks ago to find the remains of their horse. Tracks show the wolves apparently chased the horse from a pasture into a corral and killed it. Miller said his family has tried yelling at the wolves, throwing rocks and installing noisemakers, but the Aspen Pack--particularly the alpha male--continues to be problematic. Miller said personnel with the wolf reintroduction team responded quickly to the report of the horse kill, but he thinks they may be just giving the family "lip service." Elizabeth Slown, a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman based in Albuquerque, said attempts by the team to scare the male wolf from Miller's property haven't been successful and that helicopters have searched for the wolf three times in an effort to dart it. "It hasn't worked," Slown said. "We would like to try trapping it, but we are waiting for the weather to clear up a bit. We know the wolf is a problem because hazing hasn't modified its behavior." Miller and his wife said they are concerned about their 8-year-old daughter's safety....
Column - The Wolf’s At the Door John B. Kendrick was a classic rags-to-riches western story. A penniless, half-educated, Texas orphan, he moved to Wyoming, rising in the livestock industry until by the beginning of the 20th century he was one of the region’s biggest cattleman, with nine separate ranches in two counties in Wyoming and four counties in Montana. In 1910, Kendrick was elected to the Wyoming state Senate. He became governor in 1914 and the first popularly elected U.S. Senator in 1916. He served in the Senate until 1933, when he died of a brain hemorrhage. Like other ranchers of that era, Kendrick was plagued by wolves. In 1912, Kendrick paid a trapper $10 for dead pups and $20 for killing grown wolves, according to Cynde Georgen’s biography, One Cowboy’s Dream. His records indicate he paid out about $1,000 a year—somewhere between 50 and 100 wolves annually removed from the gene pool. Yesterday, in a widely expected action, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed removing the timber wolf in the Rockies from its list of threatened and endangered species. The outcry from the cattle and sheep producing states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming when the wolf was originally reintroduced was shrill. The reaction to the “delisting” proposal is nearly as shrill, though spread a little more evenly among the population....
Group wants Prairie Dog Day to take groundhog's place It's time for Punxsutawney Phil to share his moment in the sun - or shadow. A nuisance to many ranchers, the prairie dog would be widely honored if one group has its way. At least that's the goal of a Denver-based conservation group that wants to make Feb. 2 a celebration of the groundhog's smaller, Western kin, the prairie dog. So far, the Forest Guardians group has persuaded four communities - including Boulder, Colo., and Sante Fe, N.M. - to designate Feb. 2 as Prairie Dog Day. An official with the group says it hopes to spread the idea across the West. "Not Nebraska this year, but maybe next year," said Lauren McCain, desert and grasslands coordinator for Forest Guardians, a group dedicated to conservation of forests and threatened and endangered species. But what the group calls a "new twist" on the Groundhog Day tradition is viewed as totally twisted by many ranchers and horse owners, who cuss prairie dogs like a cockleburr in a cowboy boot. "Most people you call around here will tell you they're a nuisance," said Mike Roumpf, a horse owner and city council member in Crawford, in far northwest Nebraska. "Guys come up here to shoot them," Roumpf said. "They don't shoot groundhogs." He predicted that Crawford wouldn't jump aboard the Prairie Dog Day bandwagon. That doesn't faze the Forest Guardians, which has offices in Sante Fe and Denver. McCain said the main goal of a Prairie Dog Day is to celebrate the critter's role as an icon of the West....
Busting five myths about our car-happy culture How much of the United States is developed? Twenty-five percent? Fifty? Seventy-five? How about 5.4 percent? That's the Census Bureau's figure. And even much of that is not exactly crowded: The bureau says that an area is "developed" when it has 30 or more people per square mile. But most people do live in developed areas, so it's easy to get the impression that humans have trampled nature. One need only take a cross-country flight and look down, however, to realize that our nation is mostly open space. And there are signs that Mother Nature is gaining ground. After furious tree chopping during America's early years, forests have made a comeback. The U.S. Forest Service notes the "total area of forests has been fairly stable since about 1920." Agricultural innovations have a lot to do with this. Farmers can raise more on less land. Yes, American houses are getting bigger. From 1970 to 2000, the average size ballooned from 1,500 square feet to 2,260. But this hardly means we're gobbling up ever more land. U.S. homeowners are using land more efficiently. Between 1970 and 2000, the average lot size shrank from 14,000 square feet to 10,000. In truth, housing in this country takes up less space than most people realize. If the nation were divided into four-person households and each household had an acre, everyone would fit in an area half the size of Texas. The United States is not coming anywhere close to becoming an "Asphalt Nation," to use the title of a book by Jane Holtz Kay....
Grijalva to head National Parks subcommittee U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva D-Ariz., was named chairman of the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee of the Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday. This is Grijalva's first chairmanship since his election to Congress in 2002. The subcommittee handles matters concerning the Bureau of Land Management, National Wilderness Preservation System, U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service. His first order of business was to introduce a bill to expand the boundaries of Saguaro National Park.... You will recall that Mr. Grijalva is the primary sponsor of the grazing buyout legislation. Do you reckon Jimmy Bason will be lobbying him?
Natural gas project set to move into moose habitat Drilling rigs soon will move into moose habitat on the Grand Mesa National Forest near Vega Reservoir, and the U.S. Forest Service wants to hear public opinion about the project. Beginning late this year, Laramie Energy plans to drill 32 natural gas wells on five well pads near Hightower Mountain on Grand Mesa and construct 3.5 miles of gas lines and a compressor station. The wells will be spaced 40 acres apart. The company plans to develop leases it purchased during a Bureau of Land Management lease sale last year, but its plans must be approved by forest officials before construction can begin. The Forest Service is not looking for public comment about whether the project should move forward; rather, it seeks comment about the placement of the wells and how the project will impact the land, said Niccole Mortenson....
Burst pipe causes oil spill near condor sanctuary About 200 to 300 gallons of oil were spilled in the Los Padres National Forest on Tuesday and ran into a nearby creek, the Bureau of Land Management said Wednesday. It happened in the Sespe Oil Field when a pipe containing a mixture of groundwater and oil burst, said BLM spokesman David Christy. The mixture was about 90 percent groundwater. The oil field is on private land within the forest's boundaries, north of Fillmore. The spill made its way about two miles down Tar Creek, Christy said. An oily sheen on the water due to natural seepage of oil and tar into the water made it difficult to determine if the oil made it farther downstream, he said. Tar Creek runs along the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, but the oil is not believed to have reached that far downstream....
Column - Declining park visits: Good news, or ominous? The number of visitors to many national parks in Utah and around the country is dropping. According to a recent article by The Los Angeles Times' Julie Cart, overnight stays in national parks fell 20 percent between 1995 and 2005, and tent and backcountry camping dropped 24 percent during the same period. The Federal Parks and Recreation newsletter reported visitation decreased 1.9 percent from 2005 to 2006. But the numbers were actually worse. An extra 2.1 million who attended the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. were counted in 2006, but not in 2005. In Utah, park visitation fell 1.8 percent in 2005. Bryce Canyon and Hovenweep both experienced a 17 percent decline. The decreases raise issues for those of us here in Utah who love national parks, as well as for gateway-community residents and gear manufacturers relying heavily on the money park visitors generate. From a purely selfish standpoint, I view the decline favorably. Increased visitation can detract from the experience. Many parks, trails and campgrounds have reached their "people capacity," and resources were becoming damaged. There are many reasons for the decline....
Rey says new forest worker business model planned A top Bush administration forestry official announced Wednesday the Forest Service will try a new business model for contract work in federal forests to help prevent worker abuse and encourage investment in rural communities. Mark Rey, Agriculture Department undersecretary for natural resources and the environment, said test programs are planned this year for three national forests — the Colville in Washington state, Shasta Trinity in Northern California, and the Allegheny in Pennsylvania. The goal is to make forest management projects into long-term projects stretching over 10 years to allow contractors to invest in equipment and training for workers, and to allow them to build stronger ties to the community, Rey and other federal officials said. "What we're trying to do with this new business model is see if we can respond to some of the problems that the current contracting system creates in terms of making it more difficult for local communities to participate," Rey said. Bids for work such as reforestation or forest thinning projects typically cover only one year and rely heavily on the lowest bidder — too often a "fly-by-night" or unscrupulous contractor who abuses immigrant workers mostly from Mexico, Rey and other officials said at a public hearing on forest worker conditions at the University of Oregon....
Geothermal Energy Controversy In Central Oregon The reason the hot water exists is because Newberry sits on top of millions of dollars worth of high-value pumice and geothermal energy. The popular recreational area where I sat that night is the focus of one of Oregon’s most controversial Measure 37 claims and the West’s future of sustainable energy resources. Several companies, most specifically the Portland-based LPP Resources, which owns some of the Newberry property, have plans to build a geothermal power plant on the west flank of the crater. These kinds of power plants use heat and steam from the earth’s core to crank turbines and generate electricity. The upside is the plants work without all the emissions associated with coal energy. The downside is they are often located in remote and scenic areas - such as the case with Newberry, one of only three national monuments in Oregon. In addition to the power plant, James Miller, a general partner with LPP Resources, and his company have drawn up plans to construct a large scale pumice mine and 100 homes inside the monument. All told, the partnership values the developments at $203 million. Basically the question we’re dealing with here is what’s more important, taking advantage of a natural, efficient power supply or conserving the beauty of a state treasure? It’s a question with passionate support on each side. Let’s take a look at some of the facts....
Government has a new plan for fire season With wildfires burning a hole in the U.S. Forest Service budget, the federal government has a new plan for the 2007 fire season. And already officials are anticipating cries of concern from Western governors and municipal leaders. "It's going to make them very nervous. It's a very sensitive political issue," Mark Rey, under-secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment, told reporters after outlining the plan to Western senators at a Senate Energy Committee hearing led by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Silver City Democrat, on Tuesday. Instead of allocating resources among nine fire regions, the plan calls for a single commander over Forest Service smoke jumpers, Hotshot crews, planes and helicopters. Assets will be moved more often from state to state to meet predicted threats, Rey said. The new plan comes at a time of increasing alarm in Congress over the cost to the federal budget of fighting wildfires, which last year burned almost 9.9 million acres. The cost has tripled since 1999, up to a record $2 billion last year on fire suppression alone, said Bingaman. At the current trend, Congress could have to find an additional $900 million by this summer's end, he warned....
Coyote traps catch wolves In recent years as wolf populations have expanded, the number of incidents of wolves caught in coyote traps has increased. On many occasions, the wolves can be released without major injury. But there have been a few wolf deaths. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service euthanized an old female wolf in the LaBarge area last week. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf recovery leader Mike Jimenez said he was notified by a coyote trapper on a private ranch west of LaBarge that a wolf had been caught in a coyote trap, but had broken away, taking the trap and its drag chain with it. The landowner had seen two wolves together in the area, Jimenez reported. He entered the area and tracked the two wolves, following the trail where the wolf would get the chain tangled and stuck, then break free and once again be on the move. Jimenez finally located the wolf with the trap, and because of damage to the animal’s leg, put the wolf down. The second wolf remains in the area....
Nez Perce Tribe welcomes delisting of Idaho wolves Officials with the Nez Perce Tribe in northern Idaho say they support the federal government's plans to remove wolves from the list of protected animals, and attribute much of the success of wolves in the state to the tribe's wolf management efforts. "Wolves are such a highly regarded species historically to our people," Rebecca Miles, chairwoman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, told The Lewiston Tribune. "It's a huge accomplishment by all the parties. We know it is time for delisting. In spite of any debate elsewhere, the tribe is very supportive of that effort." The Interior Department on Monday said it would like to remove about 1,200 wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming from the endangered and threatened list within a year, making state and tribal governments responsible for keeping their numbers at healthy levels. "The Nez Perce Tribe has been leading wolf management efforts from about the first time we put wolves back into north central Idaho, and they have been doing an outstanding job," said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Billings, Mont....
Wild pigs march on California Using computer-aided mapping and records of hunting tags, a scientist supported by the University of California Exotic/Invasive Pests and Diseases Research Program has calculated how far wild pigs have expanded their range in California to encourage using alternative methods to control their spread. Wild pigs have long been considered a threat to native species and especially native plants in California. But what has been irritating is moving toward threatening as the wild pigs encroach on less-wild locations. “Unless we find better ways to manage wild pigs, California will risk losing many of its unique plants and animals,” says Rick Sweitzer, a wildlife ecologist at the University of North Dakota. “Equally important, agricultural losses might become enormously costly if wastes from wild pigs spread into croplands.” Mr. Sweitzer and his research team compiled a database of more than 70,000 wild pig harvest locations, which they used to determine the pace of range expansion by the species in California over the last 13 years. Preliminary results indicate they expanded their range by more than 7,000 square miles between 1992 and 2004....
Fish agency considers petition to remove or kill sea lions The federal government will consider a petition by three states to remove or kill troublesome sea lions in order to protect endangered salmon and steelhead headed upriver through Bonneville Dam to Columbia and Snake river spawning grounds. The action applies to fish protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, which includes about a dozen Columbia and Snake river fish populations, Brian Gorman, spokesman for the NOAA Fisheries Service, said Tuesday. A decision to remove or kill the sea lions, he said, likely will be a year or more away. The Marine Mammal Protection Act, established in 1972, protects California sea lions and many other species, although the sea lions are far from endangered. Accepting the application starts a process that will set up a task force and request public comment on the petition from Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Fishermen contend the sea lions, who gather at the base of the dam as salmon head upriver, eat too many of the fish and reduce the available catch....
Case pits bald eagle against sacred rites Winslow Friday needed a bald eagle. A sacred Northern Arapaho Indian religious ceremony was approaching, and Friday needed an eagle's wing, plume and feathers to perform his part of an ancient ritual Sun Dance so that his prayers would be carried up to God. So Friday went out with his rifle one day in March 2005 and shot one of the rare birds as it soared above the sprawling Wind River Indian Reservation in western Wyoming. In killing the eagle, Friday believed, he was answering a higher calling and fulfilling a solemn religious duty. But he also was breaking the law - a strict federal statute intended to safeguard the nation's symbolic bird that bars anyone from even touching a bald eagle feather without explicit government permission. Friday's own uncle, a wildlife officer on the reservation, reported the shooting to federal officials, and Friday soon was arrested and charged with violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Now, as Friday's case makes its way through the courts - possibly on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court - it has become a closely watched test of the federal government's ability to balance two sharply conflicting obligations: the congressional mandate to protect a fragile national symbol, and the constitutional requirement to protect a fragile Native American way of life....
Bald eagle flies out of peril The bald eagle, America's signature bird, is likely to be removed from the endangered species list within two weeks, after one of the most successful conservation efforts in history. But the delisting itself isn't the result of direct action by environmentalists. The eagle is about to leave the federal nest because of a lawsuit by the conservative, Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit law firm that has waged war against environmental regulation. Former President Clinton first promised to delist it in 1999, with a bald eagle at his side during a White House ceremony. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service never followed through, claiming the bird's wide-ranging nature and diverse habitats complicated planning for the status change. So the Pacific Legal Foundation agreed to represent Edmund Contoski, a Minnesota property owner who claims he was prevented from subdividing a lakefront parcel because bald eagles nested in the trees. The foundation sued in 2005, hoping to force delisting. In August 2006, a federal judge agreed with Schiff and Contoski, ordering the government to rule on the eagle's status by Feb. 16. Most observers expect the decision will be to delist the eagle. Environmental groups support that. The eagle's numbers for 2006, still estimates, indicate there are 9,350 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states, a dramatic improvement from about 417 in 1963....
Lawsuits threaten traditional outdoor activities Sportsmen and women, and the many activities they enjoy, continue to be targets of anti-hunting, anti-trapping and anti-fishing groups. The tactics used by many of these groups have changed in recent years, with less emphasis on public demonstrations and more on creating havoc through frivolous lawsuits. One such lawsuit was filed last fall against the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife concerning the status of the Canada Lynx. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, affiliated with the U.S Sportsmen’s Alliance, filed to represent sportsmen in Maine in this precedent-setting lawsuit brought by animal activists to derail hunting, fishing and trapping for abundant game wherever endangered or threatened species exist. In October 2006, the animal rights group sued to expand endangered and threatened species protections to healthy and abundant wildlife populations. "Our goal is to prevent the animal rights movement from manipulating the Endangered Species Act to ban hunting, fishing and trapping," said Rob Sexton, USSAF vice president for government affairs. "The case could set a precedent that affects the future of hunting, fishing and trapping and how they are used as wildlife management tools."....
Polar bears put Alaska oil development at risk Until now, the Alaskan oil industry and polar bears have coexisted peacefully, but proposals by the U.S. government to list polar bears as endangered by global warming have cast a shadow on oil development on Alaska's North Slope. Until now, the Alaskan oil industry and polar bears have coexisted peacefully, but proposals by the U.S. government to list polar bears as endangered by global warming have cast a shadow on oil development on Alaska's North Slope. A "threatened" listing for the struggling bears, proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, could bring new regulatory hurdles for future exploration and drilling, industry advocates say. Listing the bears as threatened "has the potential to damage Alaska's and the nation's economy without any benefit to polar bear numbers or their habitat," Gov. Sarah Palin wrote in a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that argued against the listing and its protections....
Beefy Security Last week Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at the Organic Center in Oregon, told farmers gathered at Asilomar that the key to preventing another deadly E. coli outbreak is not more self-imposed regulation, but collaboration with livestock owners. “I don’t believe farmers and food processors in California can solve this alone,” Benbrook told the audience at the 27th annual Eco-Farm Conference. “Part of the solution is going to entail changing how cattle are managed when they exist in and around important fruit and vegetable growing areas.” It’s an idea that has taken hold in the Salinas Valley in the months since last fall’s outbreak, amid much confusion and with mixed popularity. Lou Calcagno, county supervisor and owner of Moonglow Dairy in Moss Landing, says in the last two or three months many Salinas Valley cattlemen have voluntarily removed animals from confined areas near productive ag land. “I’m getting very disappointed and angry with this situation and the way it’s being handled,” says Soledad rancher Clem Albertoni, who recently sold 15 roping steers and horses that had been corralled near the fields after hearing that regulations were on the way barring confined cattle operations near crops....
Calves, cows continue dying We're getting a clearer picture of what our winter weather's doing to ranchers and cattle east of the I-25 corridor. The farther southeast you go, the more disturbing the picture gets. In the very southeast corner of our state, cattle are big business in Baca County. It's calving season right now, but County Commissioners say they're getting reports from some ranchers that 50 percent of the calves that are born are dying. The arctic cold and snow is too much for them. Rancher Bill Brooks says he's lost about 25 calves in the past couple of weeks. "That's twice what we normally lose in the whole year for all the cows, so we're just getting started and we got 200 to go," he says. A lot of ranchers say they're spending five times more than usual on feed this year. Rancher Leroy Haddock said he usually has enough hay and feed for his cows, but this year he's frequently driving 200 miles to Pueblo to buy feed. "I went to Pueblo yesterday, got a load of feed, cost me $100 a day to feed my animals right now 'cause all of our pastures are under 2 feet of snow," he says....
Cattle dispute continues Canadian cattle at a Swift packing plant in Nebraska were delivered directly from Canada, not by a South Dakota livestock producer, a U.S. Department of Agriculture investigation has determined. Federal law requires Canadian cattle to be shipped only in sealed trucks to feedlots or slaughterhouses. However, the South Dakota cattleman involved believes some cattle he bought at livestock auctions in the state came from Canada. The USDA investigation started after the Swift plant informed Jan Vandyke of Wessington Springs that it was withholding payment for seven head of cattle he sold to the packer in November. Vandyke then contacted the USDA, state ag officials, livestock groups and politicians to see what had happened and how he could be paid for the cattle. A USDA official said Wednesday that the investigation revealed that the Canadian cattle were never at Vandyke's operation. Instead, the investigation showed the cattle in question were shipped directly to the plant from Manitoba, Canada, as is allowed by law. The USDA was able to use import documents to determine that the animals entered the United States legally, the ag department spokesman said. But Vandyke said he's sure the cattle were in his yard. He said he remembers seeing the distinct ear tags. Vandyke said his family members also remember the eartags. "I have unanswered questions galore," Vandyke said....
USDA Announces Farm Bill Plan The opening salvo of the Farm Bill battle was fired by USDA on Wednesday as it presented a wide ranging plan for the 2007 Farm Bill. While the recommendations are simply proposals for Congress to consider, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns said these ideas were based on farmer input from listening sessions held across the nation. Most of the recommendations are restructuring of current programs and not totally new initiatives. The Secretary said that the message he heard over and over from farmers that they like the way the current Farm Bill was structured. Critics of the administration plan said USDA is simply rearranging the deck chairs to hide the fact they are cutting funding from farm programs. The more than 65 proposals correspond to the 2002 Farm Bill titles with additional special focus areas, including specialty crops, beginning farmers and ranchers, and socially disadvantaged producers.... Go here for the USDA info packet.
Plans under way for endurance ride on Santa Fe Trail For the past year, the 62-year-old retired real estate developer and his wife, Beverly, have been putting together The Great Santa Fe Trail Horse Race. It starts Sept. 3 in Santa Fe, N.M. and ends Sept. 15 in Missouri, broken down into 10 rides of about 50 miles a day over 515 miles. Phillips got the idea after hearing the story of Francis X. Aubry, a trader who in 1848 made a $1,000 bet that he could traverse the trail from Santa Fe to its start in Independence, Mo., in six days. He took five days and 16 hours to cover the 800-mile route that normally took a month and established a record that stands to this day. "When I heard that story, I thought we've got to do something about the Santa Fe Trail and get the world excited about it again," Phillips said. The riders will cover the sweeping landscape of open prairies and rolling plains that greeted travelers heading west with trade goods or in search of a better place to live. "It will always be near to what we consider the trail. We're in real close proximity and I doubt we'll spend a night on land that wasn't camped on by people in covered wagons," Phillips said. The trail opened in 1821 when Missouri trader William Becknell became the first to use it to haul goods by mule train to Santa Fe, then part of Mexico....
It’s The Pitts - Bumper To Bumper He promised her a life of travel and culture, of meeting interesting people and constant companionship. So here she was behind the wheel of an eighteen wheeler stuck in Denver traffic while her "sleeping bag" was sawing logs in the sleeper. She had a South Dakota address, her home on wheels was a Kenworth and her only constant companion was the trailer in her mirrors. The only people this gear-jamming-mama ever met were at the truck stop or on the C.B. The only culture she was exposed to was if they happened to stop at a TCBY for some yogurt. Her hobby was reading, not books, but billboards and bumper stickers. Stuck in the stop-and-go traffic she had read all the classics. The commuters wore their feelings on their car bumpers. She pulled on the air horn as a car passed with a sticker that read, Honk If You Love Jesus. Then she got embarrassed when another car passed with a bumper that crudely said, Honk If You Are Horny. A four-wheel drive pickup passed that was Insured by Smith and Wesson. A patriotic bumper simply stated The Marines Could Use A Few Good Men. The lady trucker muttered to herself, "Couldn't we all?"....