Klamath farmers face continuing water questions Tulelake grower Sid Staunton, who has farmed in the Klamath Basin for the past 35 years and who was personally impacted by the water shut-off of 2001, said he would rather not experience it again. Now, with the 2008 growing season fast approaching, he and other farmers are worried about the development of new federal biological opinions that will guide water deliveries and impact the region's agriculture for the next 10 years. "During the water shut-off of 2001 we gave up production on over 60 percent of our farm base. We had to buy water, install a well, we implement a lot of different measures to survive," said Staunton, who grows potatoes, onions, wheat, peppermint and alfalfa. "For me to sit and hope for a big winter so I get to farm again, that is pretty idiotic when I've got to make investments to stay modern in today's current agriculture." The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently released a final biological assessment, which evaluates the potential effects of the proposed operation of the bureau's Klamath Water Project on listed species under the Endangered Species Act....
A road forward on roadless issue The notice last week in the Federal Register was a milestone for roadless policy in Colorado. Three pages of small type summarized years of debate over how the state would manage roadless national Forest Service lands. It also defined a path forward, setting a timeframe for an environmental analysis and creation of specific rules. As a national policy on the same issue is caught up in court challenges, Colorado is moving along with its own policy, one that was created by a bipartisan task force with significant public input. While we understand the criticism of some environmentalists who would prefer stricter rules, we think the Colorado approach is a sound, homegrown plan for managing approximately 4 million acres of national forest land. The state-generated plan would ban development of most of Colorado's roadless forest land. The plan allows exceptions for ski areas, and when a temporary road is needed to fight forest fires, to use federal mineral leases and to extract coal via federal leases from certain national forest land in western Colorado....
BLM imposes $4,000 drilling permit fee The Bureau of Land Management has begun charging a $4,000 processing fee for each new oil and gas drilling permit application, the agency announced on Wednesday. The directive to charge for the permits, which are known as an application for permit to drill (APD), was inserted into a $555-billion spending bill that President Bush signed on Dec. 26. Before the change, the BLM did not charge for processing APDs, according to the agency. The money generated by the fees “is not new revenue, but rather a reimbursement to the U.S. Treasury for the estimated cost of processing new APDs” for the agency’s 2008 fiscal year, according to the BLM. The fees became effective the day Bush signed the spending bill. “To carry out this congressional directive, the BLM has developed interim guidelines for its field office regarding the collection and handling of the new fees,” a statement released by the BLM said. “Final guidance will be developed over the next several weeks.”....Amazing. Bill signed on 12/26 and implemented on Jan 2. Anyone ever see BLM move so fast? They can sure move fast when it comes to sucking money out of the private sector.
BLM manager arrested in child abuse case The field manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Kanab office has been arrested by Kanab police and charged in two separate cases of child sexual abuse. Rex Lee Smart, 60, is facing charges in one case of sodomy upon a child, attempted rape of a child, child kidnapping and three counts of aggravated sexual assault, all of which are first-degree felonies. He also faces two counts of sexual abuse of a child, which are second-degree felonies. In the other case, Smart is charged with child kidnapping, sodomy upon a child, and three counts of aggravated sexual abuse, all first-degree felonies. He was booked into the Kane County Jail on Friday and later bailed out on $125,000 bail, according to jail officials....
Study of bear hair will reveal genetic diversity of Yellowstone grizzlies Locks of hair from more than 400 grizzly bears are stored at Montana State University, waiting to tell the tale of genetic diversity in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ranging from pale blond to almost black, the hair is filed in a chest freezer where the temperature is -77.8 degrees. Some of the tufts are almost 25 years old. The hair will head to Canada in a few months to be analysed at Wildlife Genetics International in Nelson, British Columbia, said Chuck Schwartz, head of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team based at MSU. The team is monitoring the genetic diversity of the Yellowstone grizzlies over time and wants to know when new DNA appears. The team will also compare the Yellowstone bears with those in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem where a similar study has been done. Field crews from a variety of federal and state agencies plucked the hair the study team is storing, Schwartz continued. Each lock came from somewhere off the bears’ shoulders, but the way it was collected varied....I sure wish they would hurry. I've been concerned about bear diversity for oh so long. But, due to drastic cuts in the Forest Service budget, we've been woefully short of bear hair pluckers.
DOI budget takes bite from states' revenue shares US oil and gas producing states will lose nearly $43 million of their shares of revenues from federal oil and gas production within their borders under a provision of the Department of Interior's fiscal 2008 budget. President George W. Bush signed DOI's budget into law on Dec. 26 as part of the omnibus budget bill approved by Congress earlier that week. Known as net receipts sharing, the provision attempts to charge states for part of the federal government's oil and gas royalties program's administrative costs. It effectively will reduce each state's share of federal oil and gas revenues to 48% from 50%. Then-Rep. Sidney R. Yates (D-Ill.) first proposed the assessment in 1991 when he chaired the US House's Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. Congress included it in DOI's annual budget until 2000 when producing states, through the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission and their governors and congressional delegations, convinced federal lawmakers to repeal it....Surely some of that $43 million can be spent to hire fully-trained and certified bear hair pluckers.
Surge in Off-Roading Stirs Dust and Debate in West In the San Juan National Forest here, an iron rod gate is the last barrier to the Weminuche Wilderness, a mountain redoubt above 10,000 feet where wheels are not allowed. But the gate has been knocked down repeatedly, shot at and generally disregarded. Miles beyond it, a two-track trail has been punched into the wilderness by errant all-terrain-vehicle riders who have insisted on going their own way, on-trail or off. From Colorado’s forests to Utah’s sandstone canyons and the evergreen mountains of Montana, federally owned lands are rapidly being transformed into the new playgrounds — and battlegrounds — of the American West. Outdoor enthusiasts are flocking in record numbers to lesser-known forests, deserts and mountains, where the rules of use have been lax and enforcement infrequent. The federal government has been struggling to come up with plans to accommodate the growing numbers of off-highway vehicles — mostly with proposed maps directing them toward designated trails — but all-terrain-vehicle users have started formidable lobbying campaigns when favorite trails have been left off the maps....
Mouse doesn’t deserve spot on protection list One might interpret the sparse turnout at last month’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service meeting on the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse as a sign of indifference and acquiescence. Or one might take it as a sign of resignation and silent protest — evidence that most citizens by now recognize the agency will do everything in its power to keep the animal on the endangered species list, no matter what contradictory evidence or arguments are made. It might also have had something to do with the meeting being scheduled for 4 o’clock in the afternoon on a Monday in the midst of the holiday season — a time when normal people are working, commuting, greeting returning school kids, Christmas shopping and leading busy lives. If it’s a choice between going to happy hour and sitting through another seemingly pointless act in this charade, most people quite wisely would choose the former. Unless a Preble’s mouse has infiltrated their homes and is gnawing away at the base of the Christmas tree, most people have higher priorities than attending another dog-and-pony show. Of course those who support the agency’s decision to keep the mouse listed in Colorado showed up. What else do professional agitators and advocates have to do? This isn’t just an interest of theirs: It’s their mission in life. They’ve turned their obsessions into a vocation. Most of the rest of us, even if we care, are sprinting to stay two steps ahead of the tax collector, so USFWS bio-crats can hold meetings and pretend to listen, but go on regulating as if this creature is on the brink of extinction. It obviously isn’t on the brink of extinction, judging from the agency’s proposal to lift federal protections in Wyoming but keep them in place in Colorado. One dubious subspecies has thus spawned two more: the Colorado Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and the Wyoming Preble’s meadow jumping mouse....
It's all Trew: Chisholm Trail was preferred path There were many reasons why the Chisholm Trail became the path for millions of cattle bound for Kansas railheads. First, it followed almost a straight line from San Antonio, Texas, to Abilene, Kan. Second, the famous path was almost level the entire distance with waves of abundant grasses for grazing. Third, the trail crossed ten major rivers, eight major creeks and a multitude of smaller creeks, assuring good water supply each day of a trail drive. The original trail began at Wichita, Kan., and ended at Counsel Grove, Okla. The Cattle Drive Era extended the old trail on south to Del Rio on the Rio Grande River and north to the rail yards at Abilene. The approximately 1,500-mile journey required four months of driving a herd if no problems arose. Very few drives were made without problems of some kind or another. There were two famous men named Chisholm. John Chisholm was a famous rancher operating in far west Texas and New Mexico, and was an associate of Charles Goodnight and Charles Loving who drove many trail herds north during the era. Jesse Chisholm, 1806-1868, established the Chisholm Trail yet was not a rancher and never drove trail herd cattle. He was an Indian trader, Army scout, guide and interpreter for both Indians and whites....