Changes could simplify killing of wolves in Wyoming New federal wolf management rules expected by Jan. 28 will make it easier to kill problem predators in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming even if lifting Endangered Species Act protections in February is stalled by lawsuits. Environmental groups said such rule changes could lead to unwarranted killing of wolves. Wolf recovery officials said one big reason for expanding the options for killing wolves is that officials expect the removal of federal protections, planned for Feb. 28, to prompt lawsuits from groups such as Defenders of Wildlife. If litigation delays or blocks the lifting of the federal protections, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming want as much flexibility as possible to decide when to kill wolves that are eating too many elk and deer or attacking hunting dogs. "It's just basically a safety valve that we can use if we have to," Steve Nadeau, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game's top wolf manager, said Wednesday. Last year, Wyoming's lawmakers made expanding these rules a condition of going along with the federal plan to lift protections from wolves....
Wisconsin looks at timber wolf hunt Outdoorsmen will be asked this spring whether the state should set a hunting season for timber wolves, whose numbers are rebounding here even though the species is endangered in most other states. As many as 575 timber wolves roam the north woods and the population is growing about 12 percent annually, the state Department of Natural Resources estimates. The state's management strategy calls for hunting if the population exceeds 350 animals. The state now allows landowners to trap problem wolves and shoot them if they're in the act of attacking a pet or livestock. In 2007, three wolves were shot and 37 trapped and euthanized, the DNR says. The Conservation Congress, a citizens' advisory group to Natural Resources board members, wants a permanent solution, said Ed Harvey, the group's chairman. It will pose a question to its members on April 14 whether a hunting season should be set, and will pass its recommendations along to the DNR or lawmakers. Grouse hunter Ron Waller of Eagle River said wolves are all over his part of the state, and a face-to-face encounter with a wolf ruined one hunt last fall. If the state doesn't act now, he said, "People are just going to start taking things in their own hands."....
Territorial fight turns ugly along Delta It's enough to give city folk the shivers: Seven dead coyotes, slung over a barbed-wire fence in a farmer's field on Lower Roberts Island. Just down the road, Kent Kiefer explains the mystery: His cousin, farmer Rod Dement, lost his Jack Russell terrier last summer to a hungry coyote. Dement, who used to carry his little dog everywhere, has been hunting coyotes since. "They're all over," Kiefer said. "It's unbelievable, man." Meanwhile, north of Stockton, veterinarian John Lindsey forces four antibiotic pills down the throat of his pet emu, Olivia. She left a trail of feathers all over his field one night last week as a pack of coyotes chased her and snapped at her legs. Venture past Stockton city limits and you'll find plenty of rural residents with tales such as these. Despite 200 years of intense shooting and trapping, coyotes are more numerous today than when the Constitution was signed....
With predator populations rising, more calls for control Around the West and in various ways, efforts to wage war on wildlife predators are increasing. Some examples: ranchers and environmentalists are fighting over a proposal to have the Environmental Protection Agency ban the use of two poisons that kill coyotes. A successful wolf-reintroduction program means wolves are likely to be taken off the endangered species list soon, and critics of removal say this would leave them vulnerable to indiscriminate shooting, particularly in Idaho and Wyoming. And here in Oregon, hunters soon may be deputized to kill cougars, whose population has grown from several hundred in the 1960s to about 5,000 since the use of radio-collared dogs to hunt them was banned in 1994. While there is no direct connection, collectively these issues reflect the tension between rural Westerners involved in ranching, farming, and logging, and those in growing urban and recreational areas where people are more likely to have a friendlier attitude toward wildlife. In all cases, wild species' need for adequate habitat is competing against human interests....
Man injured by coyote killer sparks outrage, EPA probe The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun an investigation into the poisoning four years ago of a Vernal man who touched what he thought was a survey stake, only to get a blast of sodium cyanide to his face and chest. The cyanide device, called an M-44, is used by the federal government to kill predators. The poisoning has left Dennis Slaugh with severe multiple health problems, his wife, Dorothy Slaugh, said Thursday. And it has reignited a campaign to ban all predator poisoning on federal lands. EPA investigator Michael Burgin visited the Slaugh home Monday for a two-hour meeting, which Slaugh said she taped with Burgin's knowledge. The special investigator was looking into why federal agencies did not follow up on the Slaughs' original reports, she said. Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon pushed for the investigation at the request of Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy group based in Eugene, Ore. Dennis Slaugh and his brother were riding all-terrain vehicles on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land in Cowboy Canyon near Bonanza in 2003 when Slaugh noticed what he thought was a survey stake. He reached to brush it off and it fell over. When he picked it up, it exploded, sending a cloud of orange granules into his nose, mouth and eyes....
Slug-Gun Lessons Wild hogs tend to be nomadic; they'll go wherever food sources dictate. Because hogs are omnivorous, however, that "food source" can be just about anything; from tubers and roots to grain fields and acorns; they'll devour fallen fruit and newly hatched turkey poults; they'll chew on carrion and come right up into your backyard to mow over your vegetable garden. They eat anything and everything, period. Wild and free (and unbound by most fencing), hogs make for a wonderful game animal. Left unchecked, however, they quickly become a nuisance. Due to this obstinacy, farmers, ranchers and other land managers throughout the South, parts of the lower Midwest, the Southwest and California pursue hogs with vigor. Fortunately for us hunters, that means there is always opportunity to hunt them. I've shot hogs with bows and bullets throughout California and Texas, and I'd thought I'd seen everything. That is, until I accepted an invite last fall from former Hunting staffer Joe Coogan....
NM Game & Fish concerned with BLM handling of wildlife protections The director of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department is asking the Bureau of Land Management to take another look at how it handles seasonal closures and restrictions designed to protect wildlife from being disturbed by oil and gas drilling. The BLM has come under fire in recent months for approving hundreds of waivers to the protective restrictions in the Farmington and Carlsbad areas. Critics contend that BLM field offices are approving the waivers without due consideration or public comment. Now, Game and Fish director Bruce Thompson wants his agency and the BLM to jointly review the criteria used to determine whether waivers should be granted. He also asks that the BLM cooperate with Game and Fish when waiver requests are received. "The Department of Game and Fish and state Game Commission are becoming increasingly concerned with recent assertions regarding the number and frequency of exceptions to wildlife protective restrictions that are being approved by the Farmington field office," Thompson wrote in a Jan. 10 letter to BLM state director Linda Rundell....
Mine or yours - Let’s reform the 1872 Mining Law—finally Like many Westerners, I grew up with the luxury of unlimited adventure outdoors. I could wander around, fishing rod in hand, looking for the next hidden pond near my family’s cabin in northern Colorado. That was before I began working in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado as a mountain guide for a kids’ camp. I’ll never forget the first time I ran across a copper-colored creek in the Animas River watershed. I stopped and stared because it was strangely beautiful at first. I failed to grasp that the water had turned that brilliant color because acid waste was draining into it from a mine abandoned at the turn of the century. Certainly, no trout could survive in those waters, and I could only guess how far down the mountain the stream carried its poison. But I’ve never been opposed to mining, and I understand how the Gold Rush of the late 1800s helped define the state I was born in. Mining for metals brought people, towns and railroads, leading President Ulysses Grant to declare Colorado a state in 1876. But while Colorado is undeniably still tied to mining, times have changed, and the General Mining Law of 1872 that gives mining priority over all other land uses is way past due for revision. Fully recognizing that this outdated law is to blame for much of the damage to our public lands, many of America’s sportsmen have set their sights on reforming the 1872 law....
High-flow experiment proposed to improve Grand Canyon resources An experiment using high flows from Glen Canyon Dam to study and improve Colorado River resources in Grand Canyon National Park has been proposed by the Department of the Interior. The goal of the experiment is to better understand whether higher flows can be used to rebuild eroded beaches downstream of Glen Canyon Dam by moving sand accumulated in the riverbed onto sandbars. Grand Canyon sandbars provide habitat for wildlife, serve as camping beaches for recreationists, and supply sand needed to protect archaeological sites. High flows also create areas of low-velocity flow, or backwaters, used by young native fishes, particularly endangered humpback chub. The 2008 test would be different than previous high-flow tests conducted in 1996 and 2004. In particular, scientists have concluded that more sand is needed to rebuild sandbars throughout the 277-mile reach of Grand Canyon National Park than was available in 1996 or 2004. Currently, sand supplies in the river are at a 10-year high with a volume about three times greater than the volume available in 2004 due to tributary inflows below the dam over the past 16 months. The proposed experiment is dependent on the completion of environmental review processes required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act....
White Sands celebrates monumental anniversary It was Jan. 18, 1933 — 75 years ago today — and President Herbert Hoover was two days away from turning his Depression-wracked presidency over to Franklin Roosevelt. One of his last acts was to sign a document regarding a patch of land in New Mexico, a state that had just turned 21. That patch of land is now known as White Sands National Monument and Hoover's signature established it as part of the National Park Service. Saturday, visitors can help celebrate the monument's 75th anniversary with some special events, including multiple showings of a 1938 promotional film for the monument....
Bush officials say oil drilling will not harm polar bears US officials defended plans for oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, telling lawmakers that it would not harm polar bears, already threatened by global warming. Randall Luthi, director of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, which sells oil drilling rights, told Congress Thursday that the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act provides adequate safeguards to polar bears from oil exploration accidents such as oil spills. In addition, he said, contracts with oil companies include measures to minimize the impact such activities can have on the polar bear population. "We believe adequate protection exists," he told the House of Representatives special committee on global warming. The US government estimates crude oil reserves under the Chukchi Sea at 15 billion barrels. Representative Edward Markey demanded polar bears be declared a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming prior to the sale of oil drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea, scheduled for February 6. If not, "we will be accelerating the day when the polar bear will be extinct," he said....
Wildlife groups, energy firms debate development This weekend in Great Falls, hunting groups, wildlife managers and others will raise the alarm about how runaway oil-and-gas development in Montana could have a huge effect on wildlife. "As we looked at this issue more and more, and what's occurred in Wyoming and Colorado, we (thought), 'We don't want to be like them,' " said Craig Sharpe, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation. "We don't want the large footprint, the damage that has occurred in Wyoming." Yet oil-and-gas industry officials - some of whom will attend Saturday's symposium sponsored by the federation - wonder what the big deal is. They agree that Montana could see more oil-and-gas development in the coming years. But they say it's not likely to be anywhere near the scale of Wyoming's gas boom - and therefore, Montana shouldn't rush into new restrictions to protect wildlife from something that isn't going to happen....
U.S. opts not to plan for jaguar recovery There will be no recovery plan, at least not one with teeth, for the rarest of the wild animals native to Arizona — the largest and rarest cat species of North America — the jaguar. The Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group that has pushed for an official plan to set goals and spell out and enforce efforts to save the big cats, portrays the move as a concession to the Bush administration's border-fence project. But a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southwestern Region maintains that a formal plan wouldn't help the big cats, and the lack of one won't damage the federal agency's ongoing support of less-official efforts to protect the jaguar. The official stand against a recovery plan was spelled out in a Jan. 7 memo signed by the agency's director, Dale Hall. The jaguar was put on the federal endangered-species list in 1997. By some accounts, it once ranged as far west and north as the Monterey Bay coast and east to the Appalachian Mountains. But it has rarely been seen in recent decades, and then only barely north of the U.S.-Mexico border, usually in Arizona or New Mexico. Since it was listed as endangered, only four jaguars — all males — have been confirmed alive in Arizona. And those were thought to be border crossers from a dwindling, but larger, population in northern Mexico....
Feds may slash butterfly habitat in half Federal wildlife officials Thursday proposed slashing by almost half the amount of land they designated earlier as "critical habitat" for the Quino checkerspot butterfly, one of Southern California's most endangered animals. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed reducing the amount of land targeted for special treatment under the Endangered Species Act from 172,000 acres to 98,000 acres. Officials said the revision was necessary to focus on saving those areas where significant butterfly populations still exist. As in the past, the agency's strategy for saving the insect focuses solely on Southwest Riverside County and the Otay Mountain area of southern San Diego County ---- the only known places where the butterfly still lives. However, in both counties acreages have been shaved substantially. And the wildlife agency said it is considering trimming it more by eliminating 37,000 acres in Riverside County because that acreage already is covered by a multibillion-dollar regional habitat conservation plan that aims to protect the Quino....
Plan calls for killing sea lions at Bonneville Dam Federal officials have called for killing about 30 sea lions near Bonneville Dam each year to keep them from gobbling a rising share of Northwest salmon that the government spends millions of dollars to protect. The National Marine Fisheries Service released the proposal Thursday in response to a request from Oregon and Washington for permission to control the marine mammals. The strategy would authorize state officials to shoot or trap and then kill up to 85 California sea lions each year, or as many as necessary so they eat no more than 1 percent of salmon passing through Bonneville Dam. State officials must first try to scare sea lions off and, if that doesn't work, make sure they target only offending sea lions. Biologists estimate that 30 sea lions would be killed annually. Biologists don't know how the sea lions will react to lethal action. Some suspect that the survivors will take a hint and scatter, letting the salmon be. Others suggest that other sea lions will replace those that are killed, forcing the states into a perpetual killing campaign....
Ice returns as Greenland temps plummet While the rest of Europe is debating the prospects of global warming during an unseasonably mild winter, a brutal cold snap is raging across the semi-autonomous nation of Greenland. On Disko Bay in western Greenland, where a number of prominent world leaders have visited in recent years to get a first-hand impression of climate change, temperatures have dropped so drastically that the water has frozen over for the first time in a decade. 'The ice is up to 50cm thick,' said Henrik Matthiesen, an employee at Denmark's Meteorological Institute who has also sailed the Greenlandic coastline for the Royal Arctic Line. 'We've had loads of northerly winds since Christmas which has made the area miserably cold.' Matthiesen suggested the cold weather marked a return to the frigid temperatures common a decade ago. Temperatures plunged to -25°C earlier this month, clogging the bay with ice and making shipping impossible for small crafts, according to Anthon Frederiksen, the mayor of the town of Ilulissat, where Disko Bay is located....
Animal-human embryo research is approved Experiments to create Britain’s first embryos that combine human and animal material will begin within months after a government watchdog gave its approval yesterday to two research teams to carry out the controversial work. Scientists at King’s College London, and the University of Newcastle will inject human DNA into empty eggs from cows to create embryos known as cytoplasmic hybrids, which are 99.9 per cent human in genetic terms. The experiments are intended to provide insights into diseases such as Parkinson’s and spinal muscular atrophy by producing stem cells containing genetic defects that contribute to these conditions. These will be used as cell models for investigating new approaches to treatment, and to improve the understanding of how embryonic stem cells develop. They will not be used in therapy, and it is illegal to implant them into the womb....
Food costs jump 4.9% in 2007; biggest gain since 1990 Inflation truly hit home in 2007 with food prices rising 4.9 percent, the most since 1990, as energy costs for farmers surged and the production of crops, livestock and dairy products failed to keep pace with increased global demand. Dairy prices gained the most of all foods last year, with milk surging 19.3 percent, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Fruits and vegetables increased 5.9 percent and cereal and baked-goods prices rose 5.4 percent. Bread prices jumped 10.5 percent, according to the report. Companies including Kellogg Co. and General Mills Inc., the largest U.S. cereal-producers, boosted prices as the cost of commodities such as wheat reached record highs. One of the driving forces for higher food prices was the rising cost of fuel. Farmers and ranchers, along with transport companies, felt the same pinch that many consumers did in 2007 as energy prices, which include gasoline and diesel fuel, rose 17.4 percent. Ironically, it was the rising price of fuel that also spurred the increased production of corn for ethanol, which caused corn prices to rally even though farmers reported a record crop....
Ranch folks who pose at The Dahl Friday to receive a free portrait Want to let the world see what a real South Dakota rancher looks like? Come to The Dahl Arts Center Friday to help in the effort to reveal real ranchers to the rest of the world. You can also view images of other ranchers and their families taken by award-winning photographer Carl Corey. We have all seen movie and TV ranchers. Do they seem like you or ranchers you know? Probably not. Corey is coming to the Dahl to take pictures of real ranchers, ranch couples and families for a new book. If you are not a rancher, but know someone who might be interested, please encourage them to come in for a portrait. Corey has time for 40 ranch folks to be captured in a portrait. The goal of this visual arts project is to allow people to see the real people of South Dakota, the hard-working, often isolated, ranchers that feed the world and add so much to the independent lifestyle of South Dakota....
PBS crew to determine if Annie Oakley coin shot is real Local experts were recruited earlier this month to help solve a century-old detective puzzle that will be detailed for a national television audience later this year. A crew from "History Detectives," a PBS show that explores stories behind historical artifacts, came to Cody to find out if a coin owned by a freelance writer from Maine was shot by Annie Oakley during a performance. Producers and host Elyse Luray interviewed scholars at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center and others for background on how Oakley might have shot coins, either performing on her own or as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. For years, Oakley was the star attraction of Cody's show, shooting playing cards and glass balls with incredible accuracy. She also performed on her own and often shot coins, which spectators sometimes kept as souvenirs. Hitting a coin mounted on a target from 25 yards away is no easy feat, even for an accomplished sharpshooter. But that's what producers hoped to capture on tape by asking Worland marksman Nick Nickelson to re-create Oakley's trick shot. It took a few tries with his Model 92 Winchester rifle, but Nickelson hit the coin twice during taping at the Cody Stampede Rodeo Grounds....