Bill Delays Oil Exploration for Polar Bear Listing Environmentalists welcomed a bill introduced by a House Democrat last week that would delay the sale of land in Alaska for oil exploration. Environmentalists believe the Interior Department wants to avoid classifying the polar bear as an endangered species until the land -- which is polar bear habitat -- is sold. "The only thing keeping pace with the melting of the sea ice is the breakneck speed with which the Department of the Interior is rushing to approve oil and gas activities in polar bear habitat," said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate, Air and Energy Program, a liberal organization. Rep. Ed Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, last Thursday introduced a bill that would require the Interior Department to delay the sale of oil drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea (Sale 193) -- currently scheduled for Feb. 6 -- until it makes a decision on the polar bear. According to Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, "the Chukchi Sea Planning Area could hold 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ... thus providing potentially significant future production of oil and gas from Northern Alaska."....
States take on global warming As proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions stall in Congress, more than half the states are moving aggressively to combat the pollution that causes global warming. This year, eight states are scheduled to release plans to slash emissions of heat-trapping gases; several are likely to recommend specific reduction targets, say state officials and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Seventeen states already have such targets. States are deploying an array of strategies to reduce pollution. Among them: capping carbon dioxide emissions of power plants or vehicles and promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy. California and 15 other states sued the Bush administration this month over its decision to bar them from imposing stricter car emissions limits than those in the federal energy law. Two federal court decisions in the past year have said states have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles....
Land-protection programs gain favor in Idaho Idahoans who protect their land from urban growth could pay less on their income taxes under a bill expected to be introduced this legislative session. The proposed Idaho Ranch, Farm and Forest Protection Act would set allow about $3 million in tax credits for land owners who agree to not develop their properties for 30 years. The program would also allow property owners to sell the credits for cash. Some question how lawmakers will offset the multimillion-dollar loss in state income taxes, but supporters say it's a small price to pay for protecting Idaho's iconic expanses - and that taxpayers are willing to foot the bill. Almost two-thirds of Idaho voters would pay $20 a year to fund tax incentives that go toward protecting natural areas, according to a poll conducted statewide by Moore Information in November. Most respondents, 83 percent, supported an incentive program regardless of funding. Land conservation is becoming more popular in Idaho, the fourth fastest growing state in the nation, as urban areas increasingly creep into farmland, forests and range....
SAVING the RANCH With real estate developers offering to buy his 725-acre Sierra Valley ranch, Russell Turner chose quite a different real estate decision. Aided by the Pacific Forest Trust and the Truckee-based Sierra Business Council, Turner signed an easement that assures no homes will sprout up on the hay farm and cattle ranch his family has owned for over 150 years. Conservation easement signings like the one that recently paid the Turner family $4 million have become an increasingly popular option for Sierra Valley ranchers that have little money in the bank, but are sitting on suddenly lucrative tracts of land. Non-profits like the Pacific Forest Trust and Sierra Business Council have teamed up to offer the easements to assure that the open land and ranching heritage of the Sierra Valley are not splintered apart by rapid real estate development....
Predator Poison Under Review Dennis Slaugh and his brother were riding all-terrain vehicles when they noticed what looked like a survey stake, marking federal land in Utah's rugged Cowboy Canyon. Curious, Slaugh touched the stake, and it exploded, spewing a cloud of sodium cyanide in his face and chest. Slaugh, 65, said he suffers long-term health effects from the 2003 incident. He has difficulty breathing, vomits almost daily and can no longer work driving heavy equipment because he is too weak. The cyanide device, called an M-44, is one of two poisons used by the federal government to kill coyotes and other wild animals that threaten sheep and other livestock. M-44 and sodium fluoroacetate, more commonly known as Compound 1080, are distributed by the Wildlife Services agency, an arm of the Agriculture Department. The poisons killed more than 14,000 wild animals in 2006, including coyotes, foxes and wolves, the agency reported. The Agriculture Department says the devices are a relatively humane way to kill predatory animals, adding that because the poison is contained in specific delivery devices, the risk to non-target animals is reduced....
Elk, deer causing big damage to haystacks With the colder weather, area farmers are getting hit hard with a significant number of deer and elk coming to the valley to find food and this has left the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources personnel hopping to keep up with the demands to protect crops. One of the hardest hit areas this year have been farmers and ranchers on the west side of the Green River in Jensen. According to Wildlife Resource Biologist Charlie Greenwood, this is an ongoing problem, but made much worse this year with the colder weather. “On the other side of the river we have a herd of elk totaling about 200 that are harbored there,” explained Greenwood. “When they are out of feed, they cross the river and come over to the Thackers, Snows, Chews and others in the area to find feed.” Greenwood explained this problem happens each year and they have tried to reduce the number of “resident agriculture elk” in that herd, but it is a growing herd....
Man survives 4 days trapped under ATV A paramedic used to saving the lives of others found himself having to eat rotten meat and fend off snarling animals to ensure his own survival in rough Alberta bush country. Ken Hildebrand of Fort McMurray was riding his all-terrain vehicle as he collected animal traps north of the Livingstone Gap, about 130 kilometres southwest of Calgary, on Jan. 8 when the quad rolled after hitting a rock and trapped him underneath. Mr. Hildebrand, who has a weak leg due to polio, ended up face down on the snowy ground with his machine pinning his strong leg. “He was stuck there for four days and three nights — almost 96 hours straight,” said Troy Linderman, director of Crowsnest Pass emergency medical services. Mr. Hildebrand kept himself alive — albeit sick — by eating the rotting meat of the animals he had collected. He faced constant harassment from coyotes who were growling and fighting each other just feet away, but was able to keep them at bay by constantly blowing a whistle he had with him. Mr. Hildebrand, who works teaching first aid and heavy equipment at Keyano College in Fort McMurray, said he still has property in the Crowsnest Pass and was there seeing if he could help ranchers with problem wolves preying on cattle....
Annual organic farming conference slated for Feb. 29 in Albuquerque Organic farming is growing in New Mexico. The 175 state-certified organic farms and ranches have estimated annual gross sales of $30 million. To keep the farmers and producers abreast of the latest information in their field the annual New Mexico Organic Farming Conference has provided sessions in key topics for the past 19 years. New Mexico Department of Agriculture Secretary Dr. I. Miley Gonzalez will welcome the farmers and producers to the 2008 New Mexico Organic Farming Conference being held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 29 and March 1, at the Marriott Albuquerque Pyramid Hotel, 5151 San Francisco Road NE, at Paseo del Norte and Interstate 25. Gonzalez, a long-time supporter of organic farming, has worked to extend support to family-scale farmers in New Mexico as they face challenges ranging from water availability to finding appropriate markets. The conference is organized by New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service, the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission and Farm to Table, a non-profit education organization....
Fire Destroys Barn, Killing 43 Horses Over the weekend, an Atoka County rancher suffered an incredible loss. His barn caught fire, killing 43 horses. On Monday, family and friends gathered at his ranch to help him clean up, while investigators try to figure out what started the blaze. The Willis family has raised and trained race horses for over two decades. They say they've fallen on tough times before, but nothing like this. "I woke up and I could hear crackling and horses kicking, and I just knew." Donna Willis has just got to bed Saturday night when the sounds of the fire woke her up. She called 911, and then her family. Her sons rushed to the barn, to try and free the horses. "It just went up so fast. There was so much smoke in there. It just overtook the horses." When the fire department arrived, most of the barn was wrapped in flames....
The History Of Cattle Brands Cattle brands still play an important role in identifying an animal's owner in Texas cattle ranching. The practice of branding is ancient. Some Egyptian tomb paintings at least 4,000 years old depict scenes of roundups and cattle branding, and biblical evidence suggests that Jacob the herdsman branded his stock. Burning an identifying mark into the hide of an animal was, until the invention of the tattoo, the only method of marking that lasted the life of the animal. The practice of branding came to the New World with the Spaniards, who brought the first cattle to New Spain. When Hernán Cortés experimented with cattle breeding during the late sixteenth century in the valley of Mexicalzimgo, south of modern Toluca, Mexico, he branded his cattle. His brand, three Latin crosses, may have been the first brand used in the Western Hemisphere. As cattle raising grew, in 1537 the crown ordered the establishment of a stockmen's organization called Mesta throughout New Spain. Each cattle owner had to have a different brand, and each brand had to be registered in what undoubtedly was the first brand book in the Western Hemisphere, kept at Mexico City. Soon after the Spaniards moved north into Texas and cattle raising developed on a large scale during the middle eighteenth century, the crown ordered the branding of all cattle. The early Spanish brands in Texas were more generally pictographs than letters. The Spaniards chose their brands to represent beautiful sentiments in beautiful ways. Most of the early Spanish brands found in the Bexar and Nacogdoches archivesqqv are pictographs made with curlicues and pendants. A cattle raiser would compose his own brand. When his first son acquired cattle, a curlicue or pendant was added to the father's brand, and as other sons acquired their own cattle, additional curlicues or pendants were added to what became the family brand. Only a few Spanish brands found in the Bexar and Nacogdoches archives are made of letters. Many early Anglo-American Texas ranchers were unable to interpret the brands used under the Spanish and Mexican regimes. Texans often referred to them as "dog irons" or "quién sabes" (quién sabe?="who knows?") since they could not be read. Most of the early brands of Texans, by contrast, were made of initials and could be read with ease. Richard H. Chisholm owned perhaps the first recorded brand, registered in Gonzales County in 1832....