Studies Say Clearing Land for Biofuels Will Increase Warming Clearing land to produce biofuels such as ethanol will do more to exacerbate global warming than using gasoline or other fossil fuels, two scientific studies show. The independent analyses, which will be published today in the journal Science, could force policymakers in the United States and Europe to reevaluate incentives they have adopted to spur production of ethanol-based fuels. President Bush and many members of Congress have touted expanding biofuel use as an integral element of the nation's battle against climate change, but these studies suggest that this strategy will damage the planet rather than help protect it. One study -- written by a group of researchers from Princeton University, Woods Hole Research Center and Iowa State University along with an agriculture consultant -- concluded that over 30 years, use of traditional corn-based ethanol would produce twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as regular gasoline. Another analysis, written by a Nature Conservancy scientist along with University of Minnesota researchers, found that converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas or grasslands in Southeast Asia and Latin America to produce biofuels will increase global warming pollution for decades, if not centuries. Tim Searchinger, who conducts research at Princeton and the D.C-based German Marshall Fund of the United States, said the research he and his colleagues did is the first to reveal the hidden environmental cost of producing biofuels....
Fish and Wildlife finishes counting Mexican gray wolves Fifty-two Mexican gray wolves are roaming southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona—seven fewer than last year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's just completed annual count of the animals. The survey, released Thursday, counted 29 wolves in Arizona and 23 in New Mexico. Environmentalists said Fish and Wildlife has not done enough to protect the wolves and increase their numbers. On the other hand, the manager of Catron County, home to many of the wolves in New Mexico, said he believes the count is low. Counts are done each January. In 2007, the survey found 59 wolves, about half in each state. The federal program removed 22 wolves from the wild in 2007—19 of them either for killing livestock or because they were young pups associated with a parent wolf that killed livestock. Two were removed for moving outside the wolves' designated range, and the other was removed for "nuisance behavior," Fish and Wildlife said. In addition, three wolves disappeared in November from the Gila National Forest of southwestern New Mexico. The agency is investigating the disappearance of the alpha pair of the Durango pack and a pup....
Resolution Urges Congress to Leave Utah's Wilderness Alone The future of 9 million acres of public land is in limbo. Congress is considering declaring the Utah parcels federal wilderness, including acreage in the Uintah Basin. In response, Utah lawmakers are moving a resolution that sends a clear message to Congress - "keep your hands off our land." "It's frustrating to me that so many of these discussions come from people who are not from the West, (not) from Utah certainly," Ogden Representative Kerry Gibson says. "I think that many of these people would be highly offended if we came into their state and designated large swaths of their state as unaccessable [sic]. It's quite offensive." Gibson and his colleagues on the House Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously Wednesday for the resolution. H.J.R. 10 urges Congress not to designate additional wilderness areas in Utah without the support of the state's congressional delegation. It also stresses such a wilderness designation could tie up the state's untapped energy resources. However, designated wilderness areas and energy speculation are not mutually exclusive, according to the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. The group's attorney, Stephen Block, says the vast majority of new oil and gas drilling is not slated for the land in question. "I think it's entirely consistent to protect these public lands here in our state at the same time that we have a very robust energy sector," Block says. The bill garnered the support of the Utah Petroleum Association, Responsible Energy Developers and the Farm Bureau, which represents ranchers whose income depends on grazing cattle on public lands....
Gov. Freudenthal seeks delay on Wyo. Range drilling plan Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday to delay acting on a proposal to drill for natural gas in the Wyoming Range, a popular hunting and recreation area within the Bridger-Teton National Forest near the Idaho border. Houston-based Plains Exploration and Production Co. wants to drill 136 gas wells on 17 well pads spread over about 10,000 acres on the northeast corner of the Wyoming Range. Some of the acreage is near a rural subdivision of expensive homes and cabins. The Forest Service says the Plains Exploration plan would disturb about 400 acres and result in building about 15 miles of road. "In a historical context, such a proposal is quite modest," Freudenthal said in a letter to the Forest Service. "In the Wyoming Range, this proposal is monumental, far reaching and fraught with controversy." He noted that a second energy company has proposed drilling some 200 wells in the same area, raising fears he expressed earlier of industrializing the Wyoming Range....
Forest Service Pushes New Logging Rule In its effort to boost commercial logging, the Bush administration on Thursday proposed giving managers of the nation's 155 federal forests greater discretion in letting timber companies cut down more trees on the federally controlled land. The new planning rule is the latest response by the Forest Service to court rulings that have rejected previous policies as not doing enough to protect wildlife and the environment. Officials said the new rule would ensure public involvement in the nation's 193 million acres of national forests. But environmentalists said the Bush administration was again trying to strip important protections for wildlife and clean water for the benefit of the timber industry. Administration officials said last month they had decided it was quicker and cheaper to do an environmental impact statement on the 2005 rule, as ordered by a judge, rather than wait for a federal appeals court to consider the case. "We're proud of this vitally important planning process, and yet we recognize that improvements were needed to emphasize more public collaboration, to be more adaptive to changing environmental conditions and to ensure the protection of wildlife," said Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the National Forest System....
Tester assails Bush budget's approach to rural issues Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Wednesday slammed the president's proposed 2009 budget as a failure for rural Americans. "He absolutely got an F," Tester said during a call with reporters. " 'Incomplete' could also apply. I almost think maybe he just dropped out before the budget even got started." Tester criticized proposed cuts to some rural health care and development programs, Essential Air Service, Amtrak and the U.S. Forest Service. He said Bush would raise some fees on veterans using VA facilities and faulted the president for not putting money toward a permanent agriculture disaster relief fund. "The list goes on and on with this budget," he said. "I cannot tell you how disappointed I am, and how really out of touch this budget is with what's going on in America, particularly rural America." Tester and Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., made the call in conjunction with the release of a "Rural Report Card" by the Democratic Policy Committee that condemned Bush's budget....
Crow Tribe signs economic compact Leaders from the Crow Tribe, the state of Montana and the federal government gathered in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday for the signing of a first-of-its-kind compact that will aid economic development on the Crow Reservation. The agreement addresses the lack of legal framework that had kept many on the reservation from borrowing money and getting the financing they needed for all kinds of investments. The compact makes it easier for banks to file secured loans on the reservation, which will lead to a greater flow of capital to the Crow community. Tribal leaders in war bonnets and traditional dress stood behind Crow Chairman Carl Venne and Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson as they put their signatures to the compact. The agreement covers transactions in which personal property is used as collateral for loans, including bank loans for business startups, auto loan financing and revolving lines of credit. Such transactions usually fall under state law, but as sovereign nations Indian tribes are not subject to state laws. That made it very difficult for banks to make secured loans in those communities. A bank's claim on collateral is filed as a lien with the secretary of state's office, and the agreement will allow such liens to be enforceable on the reservation....
Southwestern treasures "Yes, the same thing done on public and private land could mean the difference between ending up in jail and walking out scot-free with plenty of money in your pockets," Ms. Farnsworth added with a sad smile. What she was trying to explain sounded bizarre, but the hard facts backed her up. In this archaeologically rich region of the country, a law enacted during the presidency of Jimmy Carter made a peculiar zigzag: It accepted the importance of cultural preservation on government property, but all but brushed it off on private land. Under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, hunting for Anasazi artifacts and selling them to the highest bidder is legal if you do it on private ranches, but is forbidden if you step onto federal or tribal property. The federal government appears to lack strong convictions about what it should protect and where. "Only 15 percent of the Four Corners area has been surveyed and inventoried by archaeologists," Ms. Farnsworth said. "The rest is still untouched. We suspect there are somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 unexplored archaeological sites out there."....
Group seeks protection for walrus under Endangered Species Act A conservation group filed today to protect Pacific walruses because of the threat to their northern habitat by global warming. The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list walruses as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of warming and its effect on sea ice used by the animals as a feeding and resting platform. The group also said oil and gas development throughout the animals' range was a threat. Bruce Woods, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, said he had not seen the petition and could not comment. The listing request was filed as the Fish and Wildlife Service decides whether to list polar bears as threatened because sea ice has diminished due to global warming. "The Arctic is in crisis from global warming," said Shaye Wolf, lead author of the petition and a biologist with the conservation group....
The Fluid Envelope - A Case Against Climate Alarmism The notion of a static, unchanging climate is foreign to the history of the earth or any other planet with a fluid envelope. The fact that the developed world went into hysterics over changes in global mean temperature of a few tenths of a degree will astound future generations. Such hysteria simply represents the scientific illiteracy of much of the public, the susceptibility of the public to the Goebbelian substitution of repetition for truth, and the exploitation of these weaknesses by politicians, environmental promoters, and, after 20 years of media drum beating, many others as well. Climate is always changing. We have had ice ages and warmer periods when alligators were found in Spitzbergen. Ice ages have occurred in a hundred thousand year cycle for the last 700 thousand years, and previous warm periods appear to have been warmer than the present despite CO2 levels being lower than they are now. More recently, we have had the medieval warm period and the little ice age. During the latter, alpine glaciers advanced to the chagrin of overrun villages. Since the beginning of the 19th Century these glaciers have been retreating. Frankly, we dont fully understand either the advance or the retreat....
Bush threatens farm bill veto if goals missed President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday he will veto the new U.S. farm law if it raises taxes or fails to cut off subsidies to farmers and land owners making more than $200,000 a year. "I'm confident we can come together and get a good farm bill," Bush told Agriculture Department employees. "But if Congress sends me legislation that raises taxes or (does) not make needed reforms, I'm going to veto it." It was the strongest statement yet to Congress from the administration of its goals for the omnibus farm law, which covers farm subsidies, land stewardship, nutrition programs like food stamps and rural economic development. Lawmakers and the administration have been deadlocked since the start of the year over the five-year, $286 billion bill....
White House race seen shunning agriculture The next president of the United States has so far said very little about agriculture, cattle or livestock, which the president of the nation's largest cattle group called "kind of scary." "As I have listened to the candidates in their primaries for the last two or three months, I have yet to hear anything mentioning the word agriculture, mentioning the livestock industry or mentioning the cattle industry," John Queen, president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, told Reuters on Wednesday. "It is kind of scary to me." The NCBA has about 30,000 members and more than 5,000 of them are in Reno this week for the group's annual convention. Queen said he would welcome the chance to question any of the candidates about their policies on agriculture, livestock, ethanol and energy, and conservation....
Ewe gives birth to 4 lambs If there's a mother-of-the-year award for sheep, a ewe belonging to a Powell couple deserves consideration. The ewe gave birth to four lambs Jan. 19 and is busily engaged in the job of raising them. Steve Martin and his wife have kept a flock of sheep and raised lambs for more than 20 years. They say quadruplets are rare among sheep. Martin says it's also notable that the new mother has tended to all four lambs. A ewe often will reject one lamb after a multiple birth....
Painting the West William Matthews is a well-respected and nationally known Western watercolor artist who will sign his new book "Working in the West" today from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Broschofsky Galleries, in The Courtyard at 360 East Ave. in Ketchum. "I'm a cowboy, and I work all the time always focusing on painting," Matthews said. Matthews spends time on ranches depicting the older traditional way of ranching as opposed to modern methods by which ranchers use ATVs, trucks and helicopters. "I prefer the old and more traditional ranching techniques of cowboys on horseback with teams of horses," Matthews said. "I pick and choose where I paint, and it's about the attitude and ranch methodology and respect for the tradition of ranching." Matthews said watercolor painting is a difficult medium, and it is unforgiving because he can not cover up his mistakes. "That's why I love it," Matthews said. "It's the most impressive medium and every day it is a challenge."....
The cowboy way Dusty Richards sometimes thinks he was born at the wrong time. The award-winning novelist feels right at home in the hardscrabble world of America’s Wild West, where cowboys went on cattle drives and men enforced the law on horseback with a pistol. In his most recent book, Montana Revenge, Richards writes about one such sheriff and his horse: “The horse between his knees was still breathing hard and snorting out his nose from the long run. Repeatedly bobbing his head, Cob danced some coming downhill, as if he knew more than his rider did about what this place might hold for him.” Richards, 70, says his love of the West is a deep connection he has felt since childhood. But the writer says he is grateful he “didn’t have to live as tough a life as it would have been then.” He’s happy where he is, sitting in the lakefront home he shares with Pat, his wife of 47 years, writing books and short stories about the cowboy life. The Arkansas resident is comfortable wearing Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He writes his vivid Western tales on a laptop computer. This modern-day cowboy writer’s cell phone rings to the tune of “Cotton-Eyed Joe.” He also has a pair of spurs — on the wall. Richards won these Spurs — awards — fair and square last year from the Western Writers of America....