Buoy Meets Gore As Lorne Gunter reported Monday in Canada's National Post, the first of 3,000 new automated ocean buoys were deployed in 2003. They amounted to a significant improvement over earlier buoys that took their measurements mostly at the ocean's surface. The new buoys, known as Argos, drift along the oceans at a depth of about 6,000 feet constantly monitoring the temperature, salinity and speed of ocean currents. Every 10 days or so a bladder inflates, bringing to the surface readings taken at various depths. Once on the surface, they transmit their readings to satellites that retransmit them to land-based computers. The Argos buoys have disappointed the global warm-mongers in that they have failed to detect any signs of imminent climate change. As Dr. Josh Willis, who works for NASA in its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted in an interview with National Public Radio, "there has been a very slight cooling" over the buoys' five years of observation, but that drop was "not anything really significant." Certainly not enough to shut down the Gulf Stream. Climate-change promoters also are perplexed by the observations of NASA's eight weather satellites. In contrast to some 7,000 land-based stations, they take more than 300,000 temperature readings daily over the surface of the Earth. In 30 years of operation, the satellites have recorded a warming trend of just 0.14C — well within the range of normal variations....
Western Antarctic Ice Chunk Collapses A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years. This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan. Because scientists noticed satellite images within hours, they diverted satellite cameras and even flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse for rare pictures and video. "It's an event we don't get to see very often," said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "The cracks fill with water and slice off and topple... That gets to be a runaway situation." While icebergs naturally break away from the mainland, collapses like this are unusual but are happening more frequently in recent decades, Vaughan said. The collapse is similar to what happens to hardened glass when it is smashed with a hammer, he said....
Ranchers outside wolf zone say they'll only target offending animals Gray wolves in the Northern Rockies will no longer be protected as an endangered species starting Friday. But Wyoming ranchers and county predator control boards outside the wolves' trophy game zone say they won't send up airplanes that morning to haphazardly hunt the predators. Going after wolves that aren't killing livestock would not only be a fools' mission for the ranchers and the boards, but it also would be exorbitantly expensive, according to board members. "The only time we'll fly them is when there is a problem," said Truman Julian, a sheep rancher in Kemmerer and chairman of Lincoln County's predator control board. "Just to put a plane up there looking for a wolf is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and it's expensive, and we have to pay for it. We don't have the money, and that's not our goal. Our goal is to remove the offending animals." Beginning Friday, ranchers in Wyoming's predator zone for wolves -- which includes most of the state, save the extreme northwest -- will be able to call USDA Wildlife Services directly if there is a wolf bothering or hunting livestock. Inside the trophy game zone, wolves will be managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department similar to the way they are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service statewide today. Ranchers will not be able to kill any wolves on sight, but instead must enlist the help of Game and Fish, or obtain take permits from the department. Outside the trophy game zone, Wildlife Services will be paid through continuing contracts with county predator control boards to aerial hunt and kill wolves, the same way these boards currently pay the agency to destroy animals such as coyotes and foxes....
Wolves trapped by shift in status The five wolves reportedly sighted last month near the Dutch John airport may be part of a Wyoming pack checking out a new Utah neighborhood. If so, they have a better chance of survival if they make the Beehive State their permanent home. Beginning Friday, because of a federal decision to take gray wolves off the endangered species list, anyone can kill wolves for any reason across most of Wyoming. Only a small area near Yellowstone National Park will be off-limits, though Cowboy State wildlife officials plan to allow restricted hunting there for trophy animals. In Utah, wolves would continue to have full protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. But if they step across the state line, they'll be in the same varmint category as coyotes, skunks, jack rabbits and stray cats. "Anyone can kill those animals by just about any means possible. That's how wacky Wyoming's plan is," said Franz Camenzind, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. That organization is one of several wildlife advocacy and conservation groups poised to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its delisting decision made Feb. 27 and set to go into effect Friday. The groups argue that the action was premature because wolf management plans in Wyoming and Idaho are unacceptable. But they can't file the lawsuit until April 28, leaving open at least a 30-day wolf free-fire zone in Wyoming....
Short-Cut Conundrum A rancher's efforts to close a corridor across the San Pedro River has prompted Pinal County officials to try to seize the property through eminent domain--an action that has conservation groups upset. More than a decade ago, ranchers Jean and Eric Schwennesen bought 215 acres to venture into the grass-fed beef business and holistic-resource management. Their son, Paul, now ranches there with his wife, Sarah, and their toddler. (See "Tales From the Outskirts," July 5, 2007.) To protect the riparian area, the elder Schwennesens sold a conservation easement to the Nature Conservancy in 1996. In 1997, that easement--which specifies that public access be restricted to nonmotorized traffic such as birdwatchers, hikers and horses--was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management. The Schwennesens bought the property from George Gordon, who, a few years earlier, had signed an agreement with Pinal County, temporarily allowing vehicles across the river until the county replaced a bridge, on Romero Road to the north, that had been washed out by flooding. The highway easement with the county was supposed to end on Dec. 31, 1995, but it contained a provision that extended automatically each year, pending written cancellation by either the county or the landowner. Fast-forward to 2007. The Schwennesens, fed up with off-roaders, learned from the county that it had no plans to fix the bridge. However, there is a well-maintained public road that crosses the river a few miles north--a route known as the ASARCO crossing, named for the nearby mining-company operation. Paul Schwennesen contacted the county to see if there would be any objections if he terminated the temporary easement....
Bison shooters stayed on land of rancher who sued The 14 men suspected of shooting and killing at least 32 bison belonging to ranchers Monte and Tracy Downare were camped in and around the old ranch house of the nearby Hawn Ranch, an investigator said today. Park County Undersheriff Monte Gore said that some of the men were actually staying in the old ranch house on the property while others were staying in various outbuildings, such as the barn, near the old house. The shootings of the Downares' bison happened just days after Austin, Texas, businessman Jeff Hawn filed suit in Park County District Court claiming that the Downares' bison were stampeding onto his property in South Park. Hawn, who identifies himself as 50 percent shareholder and manager of Wateredge Properties, claims that "herds" of the Downares' bison had repeatedly broken through the fences erected to keep the buffalo off Wateredge property, damaging or destroying the fences in 50 places. "The damage that (the Downares') buffalo have caused to the property is staggering," said the lawsuit....
Three new conservation easements signed on Front Third-generation rancher Brodie Gollehon thought long and hard about selling a conservation easement to The Nature Conservancy, but with the money he got, he purchased additional rangeland adjacent to his working family ranch west of Choteau along the Rocky Mountain Front. Landowners Gollehon and his father, Wayne, operating under the company name, Gollehon Ranch LLC, are owners of one of three ranch operations that sold conservation easements totaling 20,108 acres to the Conservancy in March. The easements, recorded in the Teton County Clerk and Recorder's office on March 5, increase by 45 percent, the number of acres along the front that have conservation easements. While the land under conservation easements is only 4 percent of Teton County as a whole, the figure rises to 15 percent of the land along the 425,000-acre Rocky Mountain Front. Gollehon said he got involved with The Nature Conservancy because the organization offered the least restrictive conservation easement and placed no restrictions on grazing. In addition, the family could still produce hay. When Lew and Christy Clark offered to sell a "chunk of land" to his family, he used the funds obtained from the Conservancy to clinch the deal for the 3,400-acre Clark property, Gollehon said. He declined to name the prices involved....
No pass for the gas The economy might be nose-diving and the war in Iraq still languishing, but the happy days of the Bush administration seem to be going strong if you happen to be in the oil and gas industry. Residents of southern Colorado's San Luis Valley are now reacting to news that 144,000 acres of federal land will go on the auction block May 8. "I think we're the last hurrah," says Pauline Washburn, an activist from Del Norte, 180 driving miles southwest of Colorado Springs. Most leases are for mineral rights under the hilly country around Del Norte, a landscape now dominated by forest and cattle-grazed grasslands. Smaller parcels flank Crestone, an arts and spiritual community where many residents are battling plans to drill test wells on Baca National Wildlife Refuge, which is adjacent to their town and to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Dale Wiescamp, a Del Norte real estate broker and San Luis Valley native, says news of the proposed sales "dropped on us like a ton of bricks." "We don't know how to handle something like this," he says, emphasizing concern about potential conflicts between drillers and ranchers and possible contamination of the valley's crucial aquifers. "We're the last of the pristine areas left."....
Trust land talks reach an impasse Talks aimed at reaching a legislative compromise on a ballot measure on state trust land have hit an apparent impasse that likely means no proposal goes to voters in November, a top aide to Gov. Janet Napolitano said Wednesday. The talks hit a blockage over whether to prohibit use of impact fees on new homes from being used to purchase trust land for conservation as open space under a proposed new process for trust land, said Mike Haener, a deputy chief of staff to the governor. That at least dims, if not extinguishes, prospects for agreement this session on a consensus package that lawmakers could put on the November ballot, Haener told The Associated Press in an interview. The state's roughly 9.3 million acres of trust land represent a century-old legacy from statehood that has seen recent unsuccessful efforts to set aside large parcels for conservation as open space while protecting funding the land provides for public schools through sales and leases. onths of negotiations have taken place since Napolitano last summer convened a gathering of key legislators to try to forge a compromise on trust land proposals - a subject of frustration in recent years for lawmakers and advocacy groups as diverse as teachers, home builders, conservationists and cattle ranchers....
Feds sue Gorge resort over work on wetlands A Columbia River Gorge resort and its owners were sued Wednesday by the federal government for grading and filling 2.25 acres of wetlands on Forest Service property next to the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort. The U.S. Attorney’s Office sued the resort and owners Pete and Elena Cam of Woodburn, Ore., for violating the Clean Water Act and trespassing on federal land within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The Cams were unavailable for comment, but the resort’s general manager said Wednesday that the problem dates back to the resort’s construction. It will mark five years of operation in October. “I do know that Pete Cam has been working with the owners of the adjacent property, which was Longview Fibre, and the Forest Service and Corps of Engineers to do a reforestation in that area,” resort General Manager Gary Sorrels said late Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors allege the resort constructed trails on Forest Service land. After building the trail, according to prosecutors, workers used heavy equipment to build trenches in three different spots and fill 2.25 acres of wetlands in and around Greenleaf Creek. It’s also alleged that workers removed orange boundary markers delineating national forest land, then burned vegetation and used pesticide and herbicides....
Idaho studies rebuild of failed Teton Dam It’s an idea that has been on the books since that fateful day 32 years ago this June. Only this year, the prospect of rebuilding the Teton Dam took a larger step forward as the state of Idaho set aside $400,000 in a $1.8 million water budget to study resurrecting the structure in the Teton River Canyon in Fremont County, Idaho. Also included in the budget is money to study improvements on the Minidoka Dam with the plan of raising the structure another five feet for greater water storage. But it is the Teton Dam that comes with considerable baggage since its failure June 6, 1976, caused $300 million worth of damage, wiped out towns, eliminated entire herds of livestock and killed 11 people....
Farm Lobby Beats Back Assault On Subsidies With grain prices soaring, farm income at record highs and the federal budget deficit widening, the subsidies and handouts given to American farmers would seem vulnerable to a serious pruning. But it appears that farmers, at least so far, have succeeded in stopping the strongest effort in years to shrink the government safety net that doles out billions of dollars to them each year. "At some point, you have to step back and ask, 'Does this make sense for the American taxpayer?'" says Rep. Ron Kind. The Democrat from Wisconsin sponsored a measure that would have slashed about $10 billion over five years in subsidies -- and saw it get crushed on the House floor. Grain prices are on a tear this year. On Wednesday, corn prices closed at $5.52 a bushel, up from about $2.20 in 2006, and near the all-time high of $5.70 set earlier this month. U.S. farm income, buoyed by demand for grain from rising middle classes around the globe and the biofuels industry, is projected to reach a record $92.3 billion this year. Still, farmers are expected to collect $13 billion in federal subsidies this year, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, including payments for commodities, land conservation and emergency assistance. The agribusiness industry plowed more than $80 million into lobbying last year, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks spending on lobbying. Much of that was focused on the farm bill. "We got rolled," says Rep. Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who worked closely with Rep. Kind. "The agriculture community circled the wagons."....
Bush Is As Much A Cowboy As He Is A Conservative The most glaring example of a Bush lie peddled to the American people by the press is the myth of the 'Bush family ranch' in Crawford, Texas as well as the role that Bush plays as a real Texas rancher. Despite the inferences, Bush's Crawford spread is not a working ranch, nor has it been in the Bush family for generations. Preparing for a White House run, Bush purchased the property in 1999 for $1.3 million. Unlike President Reagan who also owned a ranch and was an accomplished rider, Bush has never ridden a horse on his ranch. Instead, Bush uses the property to ride his bicycle, go jogging, and to clear brush for the news cameras. Despite his cowboy boots, Bush does not ride and is reportedly terrified of horses. In fact, while on his first visit to Mexico as President, Bush refused to go riding with his North American Union co-conspirator Vicente Fox. The former Mexican president wrote about the laughable episode in his autobiography "Revolution of Hope." Fox remembers Bush as "backing away" from one of his big palomino horses and repeatedly rejecting his requests to accompany him on his rides. Fox also went on to describe Bush as nothing more than a "windshield cowboy--who prefers to drive." I don't know about you, but there is something disconcerting to me about a man who wears cowboy boots but has never ridden a horse. Apparently, Bush's cowboy boots just like his self-reported conservative beliefs, are merely props with no real purpose....
State closer to banning horse tripping Arizona could soon join a handful of states that have outlawed the Mexican sport of horse-tripping, appeasing animal-rights activists who have deemed the cultural practice cruel and inhumane. The state House of Representatives on Wednesday gave tentative approval to a bill that would make the deliberate tripping of horses and other equine animals illegal. Horse-tripping mostly occurs in small, Mexican-style rodeos called charreadas, where cowboys score points by lassoing the legs of the galloping animal, forcing it to crash to the ground. Three rodeo events involve taking down a horse: roping the horse's hind legs, tripping the horse while on foot, and tripping the horse while on horseback. Hector Corona, the former longtime operations and ranch manager at Laveen's Corona Ranch, says he backs the bill. He points out that the legislation wouldn't affect the family-owned Baseline Road ranch because it hasn't allowed horse-tripping during its popular charreadas for the past 17 years. But Corona, 45, a former charro (cowboy) who has attended dozens of rodeos in both the U.S. and Mexico, says concerns about animals being injured during Mexican rodeos may be overblown. In all his years of watching and participating in charreadas, he has seen a horse seriously injured only once or twice....
Paint horse Got Country Grip looking for record 16th straight win What started as a gesture of kindness by a Texas cattle rancher toward a teenager has turned into a quest to equal one of the most hallowed records in horse racing. The rancher, Jimmy Maddux, and the teenager-turned-trainer, Brandon Parum, plan to be at Remington Park on Thursday night as Maddux's 5-year-old Oklahoma-bred paint horse, Got Country Grip, goes for his 16th win in as many career starts. Should Got Country Grip win the $15,000, 350-yard allowance race for paints and appaloosas, he will match the modern North American all-breeds record of 16 straight wins, now held by four thoroughbreds, including a pair of racing legends, Citation and Cigar. Maddux, 60, freely admits that before he met Parum in 1996, he was a racing novice. But there was something about Parum that made Maddux believe in him. The two met in the mid-1990s, when Parum's family operated a feed store not far from Maddux's ranch near Weatherford, Texas. When Maddux went to buy feed, he also looked at the paint horses Parum's father trained. Maddux soon offered the teen a winter job on his ranch, feeding cattle....