GOP Greens See Red Over Sierra Club 'Smearing' McCain A group of Republicans who promote stewardship of the environment turned up the heat on one of its allies in the climate change debate Thursday when it accused the Sierra Club of "stooping to a partisan smear campaign" against the "record and good name" of likely GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), which describes itself as "a national grassroots conservation organization," accused the Sierra Club of deliberately using "misleading, over-the-top attacks" to distort the senator's record on the environment. "The Sierra Club appears to have let blind partisanship trump honest advocacy," he added. "I find it particularly telling that the Sierra Club's attacks started at the same time that Sen. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination. Jenkins also checked the Sierra Club's press releases over the past year and found no similar attacks on Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for sponsoring an industry-backed bill providing incentives for liquefied coal or his vote opposing independent screening of Army Corps of Engineers water projects....
Pols Drunk On Corn-Based Ethanol Have Left Millions With Hangover "There is a right way and a wrong way to produce (ethanol)," the New York Times editorialized on Feb. 24. "Done right, ethanol could help wean the country from its dependence on foreign oil while reducing the emissions that contribute to climate change. Done wrong, ethanol could wreak havoc on the environment while increasing greenhouse gases." There is not, in fact, a right way to produce ethanol. But several wrong ones — spawned by congressional and presidential edicts — are already wreaking havoc on food prices and the natural environment. What we need to do is free up the ingenuity of innovators to devise a variety of approaches to biofuel production, and then permit the marketplace to decide the winners and losers. The reality is that with current technology, almost all of this biofuel would have to come from corn because there is no other feasible, proven alternative. But because of the inefficiencies inherent in producing ethanol from corn and the relatively meager amount of energy yielded by burning ethanol, the demands on farmland would be staggering. An analysis by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested that replacing even 10% of America's motor fuel with biofuels would require that about a third of all the nation's cropland be devoted to oilseeds, cereals and sugar crops. Achieving the 15% goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40% of the world's corn supply....
U.S. appeals court rejects sonar waiver for Navy A federal appeals court has rejected White House efforts to exempt the U.S. Navy from laws intended to protect endangered whales and other marine mammals by curbing the use of sonar off the California coast. A three-judge panel late Friday upheld a lower court order requiring the Navy to take precautions during the sonar training to minimize harm to marine life. The Navy has 30 days to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, during which time it must comply with the bulk of the precautions. A U.S. District Court in January barred the Navy's use of powerful submarine-hunting mid-frequency active radar within 12 miles of the coast, protecting a strip of water that is habitat for whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. But President Bush intervened, citing the national security necessity of Navy training off the California coast, and exempted the Navy from the environmental laws at the heart of the legal challenge. A federal judge rejected that argument on Feb. 4, and the panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling Friday....
Famed geneticist creating life form that turns CO2 to fuel A scientist who mapped his genome and the genetic diversity of the oceans said Thursday he is creating a life form that feeds on climate-ruining carbon dioxide to produce fuel. Geneticist Craig Venter disclosed his potentially world-changing "fourth-generation fuel" project at an elite Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California. "We have modest goals of replacing the whole petrochemical industry and becoming a major source of energy," Venter told an audience that included global warming fighter Al Gore and Google co-founder Larry Page. "We think we will have fourth-generation fuels in about 18 months, with CO2 as the fuel stock." Biofuel alternatives to oil are third-generation. The next step is life forms that feed on CO2 and give off fuel such as methane gas as waste, according to Venter. "We have 20 million genes which I call the design components of the future," Venter said. "We are limited here only by our imagination."....
In Tennessee, 2 Endangered Groups Meet by Chance Two unexpected guests showed up over the winter at George West’s farm here, rare whooping cranes that landed in Mr. West’s rich, boggy turnip field five miles from Nashville and were spotted by local birders during the annual Audubon count. “They couldn’t believe their eyes,” said the president of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, Richard Connors. The cranes had been bred as part of an $11 million effort by an international partnership that includes the United States Geological Survey to re-establish a flock along the Eastern Flyway between Wisconsin and Central Florida. The birds’ touchdown in Middle Tennessee was all the more surprising because the area is the 11th fastest-growing region in the United States, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, with subdivisions sprouting like weeds in every direction. Much of the building has come at the expense of farmland. Today, Tennessee has 84,000 farms, down from 127,000 in 1970, according to the United States Department of Agriculture....
Unease over easements A loophole in state and county laws could make it tough for Division of Real Estate director Erin Toll to take action against people she has been investigating for alleged abuses to the state's conservation easement program. At issue is the number and size of parcels into which large ranches have been divided. The conservation-easement program allows landowners to get tax deductions and earn tax credits they can sell for cash in exchange for restricting development on their land. Abuse of the program can occur when landowners get excessively high appraisals for property they put in easements, allowing them to take higher tax deductions and obtain more tax credits than they otherwise would get. Among the red flags is when land is divided into multiple ownerships before it is put into conservation easements, allowing multiple parties to get the tax benefits. In one instance, a 640-acre ranch was on the market for $1.2 million. Using limited-liability companies, the ranch was transferred and subdivided into 16 40-acre parcels. Multiple owners of one of the limited-liability companies each purchased at least one 40-acre parcel through the company. A conservation easement was then placed on each 40-acre parcel. An appraiser valued each parcel at $650,000, a value that allows for the maximum state tax credit of $375,000. "At the end of the day, property that was on the market for $1.2 million all of a sudden had easements on it valued at $10.4 million for a total property value of around $15.4 million," Toll said....
More drilling, more rules In Silt, it was a seep from a gas well leaking benzene into a creek, and in Hobbs, N.M., it was a subdivision built on an old oil waste pit. In Gillette, Wyo., it was an oil-field high-voltage line buried just 6 inches underground, and in Miles City, Mont., it was the prospect of heavily salted well water coming down the Tongue River. Across the West, states are moving to add new regulations and laws as oil and gas drilling intensifies and potential problems — small and large — emerge. "Rule-making is going to go on for a while until there is a little more balance," said Joanna Prukop, head of the New Mexico Department of Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources. Colorado has, at the legislature's direction, embarked on a broad rule-making scheme aimed at bringing wildlife and health department officials into the drilling-permit evaluation process. The rule-making is also trying to add regional planning for energy development. "Everyone is watching Colorado because Colorado is trying to take a comprehensive approach," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center in Taos....
Judge angrily scolds court, and it responds It was unusual enough when a high-level federal judge -- who is the brother of Sen. Gordon Smith -- blasted his own court for decimating the Northwest logging industry with "blunderbuss" rulings that went way too far. But the extraordinary scolding by Milan D. Smith Jr. last year apparently got the attention of his fellow judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the top federal court in the West. They recently took the unusual step of voting to have a full panel of judges reconsider the case that set Smith off. That could rein in the federal courts that Smith -- along with timber industry leaders -- blame for needlessly idling sawmills while they meddle in logging decisions beyond their expertise. Just as the Supreme Court considers only a few important cases each year, the 9th Circuit -- the largest appeals court in the country -- picks only a handful for full reviews. So the decision to do so on an otherwise routine timber sale case suggests that Smith's wrath hit a nerve with his colleagues. "It's very rare and unusual," said Scott Horngren, a Portland attorney involved in the case. "It's basically unheard of that they take a timber sale case." It offers a rare glimpse at the inside politics of the court that has issued momentous decisions, involving protection of species from spotted owls and salmon, with cascading effects on the Northwest economy....
Firefighting air tankers vulnerable to accidents U.S. Forest Service air tankers used in California and other Western states are potentially vulnerable to accidents, investigators warn in a new report. Despite making strides to improve air safety, the Forest Service could still use more money, better long-range planning and stricter aircraft inspections, among other improvements, federal investigators said. "The Forest Service has suffered numerous, potentially preventable aviation accidents over the years, and continues to be at risk for more," the investigators with the Agriculture Department's Office of Inspector General noted this week. In June 2002, for instance, three crewmen died when their 45-year-old air tanker broke apart over the mountains north of Yosemite National Park. National Transportation Safety Board investigators subsequently cited "inadequate maintenance" that overlooked cracks in a wing of the Lockheed C-130. More recently, two Forest Service contractors died in August 2006 when their heavy-duty Sikorsky helicopter crashed into the Klamath River. Part of the 40-year-old helicopter's tail rotor fell off shortly before the crash, investigators found....
Cost of fighting fires eating away at Forest Service's budget Although the land is still blanketed in snow with temperatures below freezing, Westerners are conditioned to expect fire. And by July, their expectations will be met as forest fires roar through their states. Some hoped President Bush's new budget would provide answers to this growing problem, but as usual, little has changed for the Forest Service. Once again, the majority of the funding will go to wildland fire management and emergency fire suppression. Until budgets effectively address the causes of the fire problem - fuels accumulations and the ever-expanding wildland-urban interface - catastrophic wildfires will continue to ravage both forestlands and nearby communities. In recent years, the Forest Service's budget for wildland fire management has averaged $1.5 billion a year. But each year, the Forest Service spends all of that budgeted money and then borrows from other programs, like research and restoration, to cover additional firefighting expenses. After fire season, Congress relies on "emergency supplements" to reimburse the agency about $500 million annually. In effect, there is no budget for fire management; the more money the Forest Service spends, the larger the reimbursement....
Judge delays decision on jury visit to Thirtymile site A federal judge on Friday delayed deciding whether to let a jury in the trial of a Forest Service crew boss visit the site of the Thirtymile Fire where four firefighters died in 2001. The judge also pushed back the trial date of Ellreese Daniels from April 14 to May 5. Daniels is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for failing to order his firefighters to a safe area as flames advanced toward him and his crew on July 10, 2001, north of Winthrop. He is also charged with seven counts of making false statements to investigators. Daniels' lawyer wants the jury to see the site because, they say, pictures and videos do not provide enough detail for the jury to judge if Daniels was negligent in not getting his crew to a safe spot. "To deny the jurors the ability to view the scene will significantly impair Mr. Daniels' right to present the defense of his case," Daniels' lawyer wrote in a recent motion....
Fugitive activist extradited to United States Fugitive environmental activist Tre Arrow is back in the United States to stand trial on conspiracy and arson charges after nearly four years in a Canadian prison. Arrow, 34, formerly Michael James Scarpitti, was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2004 following his arrest in Victoria, B.C., on local charges of shoplifting, assault and obstructing a police officer after a security guard caught him trying to steal a pair of bolt cutters. Arrow pleaded guilty to the Canadian charges but fought extradition by seeking asylum, claiming he faced political persecution in the United States. The 14-count indictment charges Scarpitti with taking part in the destruction of several concrete-mixing trucks at Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. in Portland in April 2001. He's also accused of destroying logging trucks at Schoppert Logging Co. in Eagle Creek near Mount Hood in June 2001. Arrow, who legally changed his name from Scarpitti, has said trees told him to make the change. He earned fame among activists when he scaled the offices of the U.S. Forest Service in Portland in the summer of 2000 to protest logging on Mount Hood, perching on a ledge for 11 days....
Climbing banned at Tahoe landmark The U.S. Forest Service has issued a final order banning rock climbing at Lake Tahoe's Cave Rock, ending more than a decade of legal battles. The action affecting the prominent rock formation on the lake's east shore ends a dispute between rock climbers and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California. The order, signed by Lake Tahoe Forest Supervisor Terri Marceron, follows an August decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a climbing ban ordered in 2003. The Washoe tribe praised the order. According to Washoe lore, Cave Rock was a sacred place where tribal elders communed with powerful spirits....
Drug sweep in Orofino area nets 10, more arrests expected Ten people were arrested Friday morning in Clearwater County on various drug charges. The Clearwater County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that they were assisted by several other agencies in serving seven search warrants in the Orofino area. The action was the culmination of a four-month investigation into the distribution of illegal drugs including methamphetamine and marijuana as well as prescription narcotics. Assisting agencies included the Orofino Police Department, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office, Idaho Fish and Game, Idaho Health and Welfare Child Protective Services and Fraud Investigation, Nez Perce Tribal Police and U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement....So, the Forest Service is involved in law enforcement efforts against meth labs on private property. Keep that in mind the next time the Forest Service LEOs are crying out for larger budgets to "protect our federal lands."
Groups, feds join to push law aimed at saving lands in West Elena Daley, an administrator with the federal Bureau of Land Management, climbs atop a volcanic formation in the hills of southern Arizona and studies ancient petroglyphs scratched into stone by Hohokams. There is a stick man, a pregnant sheep, a spiral. In the valley below, springtime in the Sonoran Desert has created a verdant carpet dappled with poppies and lupines. This place 30 miles from Tucson, with its dramatic vistas, archaeological heritage and unique ecology, is just one of more than 800 properties in the BLM's National Landscape Conservation System being touted for a new American preservation network. Daley, the conservation-system director, is here to join forces with environmental groups in support of a congressional act that would permanently designate 26 million acres of Western lands for conservation. "This is like being part of a birthing," she says. "I think we are all about to witness the next major conservation system in the United States."....There's nothing new here. The wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, national monuments and national conservation areas have existed for years. How can you "birth" something that already exists? The only thing being "birthed" here is the upgrading in BLM's eyes of their status as a land management agency and their ability to lobby for a larger budget. BLM's ego and your tax dollars is what this is about.
Oil exploration may shake up carrizo Just as managers of the Carrizo Plain National Monument in eastern San Luis Obispo County are moving toward agreement on the future of cattle grazing there, oil and gas exploration is emerging as a new battleground on the 250,000-acre grasslands preserve. Vintage Production, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, owns 30,000 acres of mineral rights in the heart of the monument’s valley floor and, with oil now topping $100 a barrel, it has notified the Bureau of Land Management that it wants to find out what’s there. John Dearing, a BLM spokesman, said the agency can do nothing to stop the testing because the mineral rights pre-exist the monument’s creation by President Bill Clinton as he left office in 2001....
Mustang makeovers Have you got what it takes to transform a wild horse into a well-trained equine partner? The Bureau of Land Management hopes to find 25 trainers willing to give it a go for $10,000 in prize money at the new Wyoming Mustang Challenge Aug. 15 at the Wyoming State Fair. The trainers will be selected from applications received by April 1. Each trainer will pick up a wild horse in May at the Mantle Ranch wild horse facility in Wheatland. They’ll have 100 days to work with the animals before vying for cash prizes in three categories -- conditioning, ground work and riding a course with a series of obstacles. Alan Shepherd, state leader for the BLM’s wild horse program, said he hopes trainers from all experience levels apply. “I would like to see the whole variety,” he said. “I’d like to see the guys that make this a profession, but I would also like that guy who is the weekend horse guy to step up.”....
Alternatives gain attention amid Chino abuse case Every Tuesday in the slaughterhouse at the center of the sprawling Prather Ranch in Northern California, butchers on the kill floor stand silent for a moment before making meat of two dozen steers that eventually will be served on dinner tables across the West. The inspiration for the quiet pause is a quotation from humane animal treatment expert Temple Grandin. It is framed and hanging on a wall of the "knock box," where cows are stunned before their throats are slit. Grandin's quote: "I believe that the place where an animal dies is a sacred one." Bringing ritual into slaughter plants might prevent people from becoming numb or callous. "The ritual could be something very simple, such as a moment of silence. ... No words. Just one pure moment of silence." The 15,000-acre ranch in the shadow of Mount Shasta is not only an organic operation, but is also one of a growing number of beef producers certified by Humane Farm Animal Care, which outlines conditions for the raising, processing and transportation of animals used for food. Inquiries from the public about Prather Ranch meat pick up after incidents like the recent record-setting beef recall out of Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., where undercover video revealed abuse of cattle with forklifts and electric prods, ranch owner Mary Rickert said.
Rural lawmen fight crime on the range Frank and Jesse James aren’t galloping over the Carrisa Plains as they did in days of yore. But their venal spiritual descendants still skulk around the county’s rural areas, and they’re still rustling. Now, though, the outlaws — while still pilfering cattle—are more interested in rustling agricultural products, farm equipment and construction materials. True, it’s not as glamorous as snatching steers. But it’s plenty lucrative. So are the methamphetamine labs that pop up like jimson weed in the county’s outlands, and there’s money to be had in another common county crime, cockfighting. With all this illegal activity out in the boondocks, the county needs some latter-day Wyatt Earps to mosey out and ferret out the bad guys. It has them, in the San Luis Obispo Rural Crime Task Force....
These boots are made for wearing It's just that Beck wants his boots to go to a good home, just like his dad Earl and twin brother Bearl did when they sold their first pair of boots to a Dalhart ranch hand back in 1916. They are intended to go to a proper home, a place not for show but for practical use. That was the way the Becks did things when they moved to Amarillo and opened the first store in 1921. A cowboy would come in, tell them what he wanted, and they'd craft some working boots to his specifications. Beck's Cowboy Boots, with 11 employees, makes 1,500 custom-ordered boots a year. It takes 15 working days to craft a boot from start to finish. Before they ever begin, each new customer is mailed a "fit kit." It includes pieces of special foam for feet impressions, instructions on how to measure the feet and calves, selection of heel height and shape, toe shape, types of foot leathers and top leathers, selection of colors and a questionnaire of how often and what way the customer wears a boot. Beck's Cowboy Boots has made 120 different sizes of boots. He said Tony Lama, for example, has 12 sizes....
Rim Country loses pioneer rancher, horseman E.C. Conway, 90, was practically born on a horse. He was born Nov. 1, 1917 in Globe to Ed and Jane Conway, and as a 10-day-old infant, traveled on horseback to the family's Greenback Valley Ranch. "I was born one day, and 10 days later I was a rancher," he liked to say. Edward Charles (E.C.) Conway died Feb. 25. E.C. was part of the Payson Rodeo since the early 1930s. He took part in about 20 of them, including the ones in which he boxed. Mr. Conway lived on and operated the Greenback Valley Ranch for his entire life. As a young, wiry cowboy from a pioneer ranching family, Conway made his mark in more than a few events at the Payson Rodeo during the 1930s and 1940s. He roped calves, team roped and even boxed and milked wild cows. His partner -- and sometimes competition -- in the contests was his brother, Clarence. Over the years, he had many team roping partners, in addition to his brother Clarence, some he still recalls are Buck Nichols, with whom he won the Payson Rodeo, Frank Cline and John Cline. "We just used ranch horses," he said of the mounts they rode in team roping. Modesty and an aging memory prevented Conway from saying how many contests he won over the years, except to say, "I won a few." Conway was among the rodeo contestants who also took part in the boxing that was introduced to the list of events in the 1930s. It was one of the things unique to Payson -- none of the other rodeos in which Conway participated had boxing....