Pinon Canyon meetings planned The Army has authorized several meetings this week with focus groups in La Junta and Trinidad to talk about the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. The move has opponents of the expansion protesting that the Army is defying a new federal budget law, while Fort Carson officials argue they only are fulfilling a different mandate from Congress. Lt. Col. Jim Rice, the Pinon Canyon project manager at Fort Carson, confirmed Monday that Kreativo, a Pueblo public relations firm owned by Glenn Ballantyne, had been contracted to conduct invitation-only meetings this week with community members in La Junta and Trinidad. The meetings come approximately a month after President Bush signed the 2008 omnibus budget bill, which includes a one-year ban on the Army spending any money this year on the proposed 414,000-acre expansion of the training site northeast of Trinidad. That ban was authored by Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar, a Republican and Democrat who are opposed to any expansion of the 238,000-acre training area. Ranchers opposed to the expansion call the meetings the latest example of the Army disregarding the funding ban....
Texas farmers take water war with Mexico to Canada More than 40 Texas farmers, ranchers and irrigation districts are gearing up to take their long-standing water war with Mexico to the next level, in this case a Canadian judge. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs came to the Rio Grande Valley for a pep talk Tuesday, to reinvigorate farmers who have been fighting for three years and running up legal bills near $500,000. "You roll over now and you won't be in good shape," Combs told a room full of farmers and ranchers. In 2004, the farmers and ranchers sued Mexico for $500 million, arguing that their southern neighbor had shorted them on Rio Grande water from 1992 to 2002 in violation of a 1944 treaty. In June, a tribunal operating under the North American Free Trade Agreement decided it did not have jurisdiction, stalling the case before it got started. Most frustrating to the landowners was that the U.S. State Department had intervened at the last moment and sided with Mexico. "When they did that it really just hit you in the stomach," said Joe Barrera, general manager of the Brownsville Irrigation District....
Land agencies could endure heavy cuts President Bush's proposed 2009 budget would shrink the funding for every land management agency except the National Park Service. Under Bush's plan, the U.S. Forest Service discretionary budget would fall $373 million from 2008 levels, to $4.1 billion. Money for state and private forestry programs, research, maintenance, management and law enforcement would decrease from 2008. Dollars would be cut from wildfire preparedness, hazardous fuels suppression and other fire operations but would be boosted for fire suppression. The overall U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service budget would shrink by $65 million from 2008 levels, the Bureau of Land Management by $30 million and the Bureau of Indian Affairs by $100 million. While Bush proposes the levels as a first step, Congress has ultimate say over how much gets spent. The Park Service would see a slight overall increase of $14 million, to $2.4 billion. While its operating budget would shoot up by $161 million, its finances for construction and maintenance would drop by $46 million and land acquisition would fall by $48 million....
Lawmakers will debate tax credits for land conservation Idaho lawmakers will consider a bill that would offer income tax credits to farmers, ranchers and forest owners as an incentive to preserve their land. The House Revenue and Taxation Committee voted 13 to 4 today to consider a bill that would fund up to $3 million in tax credits per year. The measure would offer up to $500,000 for landowners who donate conservation easements on their property. The easements would have to last at least 30 years. A coalition of ranchers, growers, loggers, sportsmen and conservationists is pushing the bill. The group commissioned a poll in November that found 83% of Idaho voters supportive of using tax credits to encourage the protection of ranches, farms, private forests and open space.
Feds anticipate sage grouse decision in 2009 Federal officials may recommend by the end of the year whether to extend protections to the greater sage grouse in Montana, Wyoming and other Western states. In December, a federal judge in Idaho said the Bush administration's 2005 decision not to place the bird on the endangered-species list was "tainted by the inexcusable conduct" of a senior Interior Department official and done without considering information from experts. In the wake of the decision, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a yearlong, intensive review of the bird and decide whether it should be placed on the list, Diane Katzenberger, an agency spokeswoman in Denver, said Tuesday afternoon. A notice of the decision to conduct that status review is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register next week, Katzenberger said....
Will the 'domino' fall? A diverse and ostensibly powerful alliance of organizations and elected officials has been opposing new oil and gas drilling projects in the Wyoming Range for about three years. It's unclear what the campaign has yielded, if anything. Those who have joined to protect the mountain range in the western part of the state are an eclectic group of people and organizations, including Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, Sportsmen for the Wyoming Range, the Wilderness Society, the National Outdoor Leadership School, miners, ranchers, outfitters, hunters and even some gas patch workers. A bill to protect the range, introduced by Barrasso five months ago, would stop the sale of any future leases there, and allow for negotiated buyouts -- and the subsequent permanent retirement of existing leases. But the bill has languished in the Senate, and is still waiting for its first hearing in a subcommittee. Meanwhile, in what Freudenthal has characterized as "the first domino" toward industrialization of the Wyoming Range, Plains Exploration and Production Co. is moving forward with plans for a 17-pad, 136-well development of legally valid gas leases it owns in the Upper Hoback River Basin, just south of Bondurant....
Does state have a say? When it comes to energy development in the Wyoming Range, do residents of the Equality State have a say in the matter? At least one cattle rancher in Daniel is beginning to wonder. If the federal government sells oil and gas leases in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, could Wyoming residents -- even if a majority agree they don't want drilling there -- do anything at all to stop it? For J.J. Healy, who runs a cow-calf operation near a proposed drilling site south of Bondurant, these are two of the most basic questions that emerge for him when he considers the big picture. Today, if he looks out his ranch window, he'll see a familiar panorama: rolling, sage-speckled hills, behind them a slow dip into a hay meadow, and beyond that the gentle, but majestic rise of the wooded and snow-covered peaks of the Wyoming Range. What Healey sees has been relatively untouched by industrialization thus far. That holds true for most of the range, but recent plans to develop gas leases in this mountain forest would change everything, he said....
Fish and Game proposes grizzly bear compensation Idaho lawmakers will hold a hearing on a proposal to compensate ranchers when grizzly bears kill livestock in eastern Idaho. The Senate Resources and Environment Committee voted Monday to hold the hearing, likely to be scheduled for next week, after a 12-member Idaho Department of Fish and Game advisory group introduced the legislation. The compensation would come from Fish and Game's Big Game Depredation Fund. A deductible of $1,000 would be required before a claim could be filed. Idaho ranchers and landowners already can be compensated by the state for damage caused by black bears and mountain lions. Last April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lifted Endangered Species Act protections for the estimated 500 grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park. Fish and Game now manages the population in the eastern part of Idaho, thought to be about 40 bears. Ken Marlor, chairman of the Fish and Game advisory group, said there have been a few cases of grizzlies causing damage to property in eastern Idaho. He said it's difficult to track the incidents because the bears are always on the move, the Post Register reported....
Ridley agrees to $6M settlement in BSE lawsuit Winnipeg feed maker Ridley Inc. will pay $6 million to Canada's cattle producers to end its exposure to class actions over the arrival of mad cow disease. The company said in a press release Tuesday that it will pay $6 million into a plaintiffs' settlement trust fund to settle claims against it in four co-ordinated lawsuits filed by ranchers in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. "Ridley makes no admission of liability or wrongdoing in the matter and we will continue to contest any allegation we were responsible for the plaintiffs' damages," said Ridley CEO Steve VanRoekel in the company's release. However, he said, "resolving these lawsuits now minimizes the costs associated with defending an already lengthy litigation, eliminates the uncertainty, and allows us to move our business forward." The proposed suits had alleged that negligence by both Ridley and the federal government led to the the infection of an Alberta cow with mad cow disease, and the subsequent BSE crisis starting in May 2003....