Save the jaguar Consider nature, science and politics. The beauty of nature is enhanced only by its gee-whiz factor. For example, in addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, each jaguar has a unique pattern of spots. Scientists turn that uniqueness into valuable data. For example, biologists who use remote-sensor cameras to document jaguar visits to southern Arizona can identify individual animals by the pattern of their spots. They know jaguars still prowl a small part of their historic range in Arizona. Politics should provide a way to protect and enhance those jaguar populations. After all, the Endangered Species Act exists because Americans care about conservation. But politics can block wildlife-management goals for unscientific reasons. For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's announcement that it will not pursue a recovery plan for the jaguar looks more like an easy way out than a sound scientific decision....
How government makes things worse WHAT DO ethanol and the subprime mortgage meltdown have in common? Each is a good reminder of that most powerful of unwritten decrees, the Law of Unintended Consequences - and of the all-too-frequent tendency of solutions imposed by the state to exacerbate the harms they were meant to solve. Take ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel made (primarily) from corn. Ethanol has been touted as a weapon in the fashionable crusade against climate change, because when mixed with gasoline, it modestly reduces emissions of carbon dioxide. Reasoning that if a little ethanol is good, a lot must be better, Congress and the Bush administration recently mandated a sextupling of ethanol production, from the 6 billion gallons produced last year to 36 billion by 2022. But now comes word that expanding ethanol use is likely to mean not less CO2 in the atmosphere, but more. Instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from gasoline by 20 percent - the estimate Congress relied on in requiring the huge increase in production - ethanol use will cause such emissions to nearly double over the next 30 years. The problem, laid out in two new studies in the journal Science, is that it takes a lot of land to grow biofuel feedstocks such as corn, and as forests or grasslands are cleared for crops, large amounts of CO2 are released. Diverting land in this fashion also eliminates "carbon sinks," which absorb atmospheric CO2. Bottom line: The government's ethanol mandate will generate a "carbon debt" that will take decades, maybe centuries, to pay off. Actually, that's not quite the bottom line. Jacking up ethanol production causes other problems, too. Deforestation. Loss of biodiversity. Depletion of aquifers. More ethanol even means more hunger: As more of the US corn crop goes for ethanol, the price of corn has been soaring, a calamity for Third World countries in which corn is a major dietary staple....
Southern Baptist leaders shift position on climate change Several prominent leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention said Monday that Baptists have a moral responsibility to combat climate change -- a major shift within a denomination that just last year cast doubt on human responsibility for global warming. Forty-six influential members of the Southern Baptist Convention, including three of its past four presidents, criticized their denomination in a statement Monday for being "too timid" in confronting global warming. "Our cautious response to these issues in the face of mounting evidence may be seen by the world as uncaring, reckless and ill-informed," the statement says. "We can do better." The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, adopted a resolution last year urging Baptists to "proceed cautiously in the human-induced global warming debate in light of conflicting scientific research." The resolution said "many scientists reject the idea of catastrophic human-induced global warming." On Monday, however, dozens of Southern Baptist leaders expressed a different view....
Forest Service stock found dead Six U.S. Forest Service stock animals that went missing in January were found dead earlier this week, according to an agency news release. Forest Service employees have searched for 10 horses and mules owned by the Forest Service and four privately owned stock animals since mid-January, when their absence was noticed during a routine inspection. The missing horses and mules were part of a herd of about 135 animals wintering on pasture land near Choteau. Employees of the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Ranger District found the 14 animals Wednesday on Chute Mountain. Ten of the animals were dead, including four privately owned stock animals. The causes of death are unknown, but appear to be starvation, dehydration, exposure or some combination of those factors, the news release states. Forest Service employees, ranch hands and other volunteers worked throughout the night Wednesday to clear a 1.5-mile trail through deep snow so the four surviving animals could get to a lower elevation....
Ninth Circuit: Still crazy after all these years Once again, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has gone off the deep end. They ruled the United States Forest Service should not have allowed expedited logging in the National Forests, although Congress approved the process. (This process calls for "thinning" certain areas by taking only a few trees at a time from a given region). The three judge panel said the Forest Service failed to, " properly analyze the rule, causing 'irreparable injury' by allowing more than 1.2 million acres of national forest land to be logged and burned each year without studying the ecological impacts." The Forest Service told the court they took the actions to provide a secure "fire safe" environment, using a program approved by Congress that allowed selective logging (a process where a small number of trees in a given area are cut to thin the forest land so fire will not spread rapidly). The Forest Service told the court their actions saved thousands of homes in Southern California during last year's San Diego fires, a statement that fell on deaf ears. Judges on the "Ninth Circus" have shown a callous disregard for the welfare for the people and critters who reside in forested areas of the west including those of us who live in Paradise. The Ninth Circuit Court is the most overturned one in the nation, and hopefully this decision will be quickly reversed....
Politics of powder in Aspen's backcountry It’s an average day on an Aspen Skiing Co. powder tour when Bob Perlmutter points out a pair of snowmobilers cruising into a closed area. The two powder poachers on sleds are oblivious to the dozen customers in the snowcat sneering through the windows, and Perlmutter, the tour’s manager, is not about to turn around to verbally berate a few law-breaking snowmobilers. “There you can see snowmobiles go right by a bunch of signs that say, ‘No snowmobiles beyond this point,’” Perlmutter said. “That’s part of the issue.” Only the skiing company is allowed to use motorized vehicles to bring skiers to the powder on Richmond Ridge, a mix of public and private land roughly twice the size of Aspen Mountain. In the Wild West of Richmond Ridge — Aspen’s closest and most accessible backcountry skiing — the rules don’t always make a difference. Furthermore, enforcing and managing those rules seems to be less and less of a reality....
Government denies protected status for wolverines in mainland U.S. Wolverines in the contiguous United States were denied federal protection Monday at a time when new studies suggest they could become extinct within 45 years if climate change eliminates the snow zone they depend upon. Scientists say they are still puzzling out new revelations and investigating unanswered questions about wolverines' year-round dependence on remote mountains that have a deep spring snowpack, from denning, foraging and mortality to traveling “superhighways” in search of mates. But just as salmon, polar bears and other species are tied to the landscape in ways that are both obvious and mysterious - and increasingly affected by humans - the wolverine has found its niche threatened as snow coverage diminishes. Environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 and 2000 and filed a lawsuit in 2006 in an effort to list wolverines in the Lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act. The agency said Monday that wolverines do not warrant federal protection because they aren't geographically or genetically separated from wolverine populations in Canada and Alaska and thus aren't significant to the species' survival....
Mountain biking gets pinched If you’re a mountain biker, the Telluride Trail offers a grueling climb to the gondola, followed by a ripping, brain-boiling descent back to town. The Ridge Trail is a tooth-chattering ride down to Mountain Village. And Telluride’s annual Full Tilt race is the area’s premiere mountain-biking event. But get ready to say goodbye to all that. Citing safety concerns, the U.S. Forest Service wants to bar mountain bikers from the Telluride and Ridge trails this summer. And the Telluride Ski Resort pulled its support from the Full Tilt race, a three-day contest that draws about 1,000 people to town. “It’s just really discouraging,” said Dan Goss, who’s part of the San Miguel Bike Alliance, a local mountain bikers’ group. Mountain biking is a thorny issue on the south side of Telluride, where helixes of legal and illegal trails crisscross Telski property and federal land....
Forest Service driver’s blood had pot, alcohol Investigations into the exact cause and repercussions of an accident at the 25th annual Mount Taylor Quadrathlon are still in progress. New Mexico State Police Trooper Craig Vandiver, on the scene when a U.S. Forest Service truck went out of control and damaged 23 high-end bicycles, nearly striking numerous participants, volunteers and spectators, said in a state police report that Craig Trinkle, the driver, appeared to be still in the throes of a seizure when officers reached the truck. When Vandiver opened the truck to turn off the engine, Trinkle was disoriented and abnormally stiff, the report said. Medical reports obtained by court order revealed the Trinkle had some level of alcohol and marijuana in his system in addition to prescription drugs. The level of intoxicating substances has not been released. Based on the medical evidence, Trinkle was arrested and ordered to appear in magistrate court in Grants on March 13. Chuck Hagerdon, district ranger for the forest service, said the information given him indicated that Trinkle tested negative in a “breath-alyzer” test at the scene and his office is waiting to hear more specific results....
Bush Administration Refuses to Protect Endangered Species Habitat in Michigan and Missouri National Forests Environmental groups challenged the federal government’s decision to exclude all national forest land from a recent endangered species ruling in federal court today. The suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Center for Biological Diversity, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, Michigan Nature Association, Door County Environmental Council (DCEC) and the Habitat Education Center, charges that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s designation of critical habitat for the Hine’s emerald dragonfly violates the federal Endangered Species Act by excluding all 13,000 acres in Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest and the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. While much of the dragonfly’s most important habitat lies on these national forest lands, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service chose not to extend them full legal protections, arguing that the Forest Service would be more cooperative if the National Forest land were excluded. “These striking insects are named for their amazing green eyes. But those good looks will not be enough to protect them as they cling to habitats in Michigan and Missouri, thanks to one governmental agency that does not want to hold another to its legal obligations,” said John Buse, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity....I like green eyes, but on a dragonfly?
Lynx prefer dense forests over sparse landscape, study finds In the largest study of Canada lynx in the Lower 48 states, researchers in western Montana have found that the rare cat prefers to make its dens under downed logs deep within mature, dense forests. Earlier research in Canada focused on the structure of lynx dens, but the new study explored the landscape surrounding dens in the contiguous United States, where scientists are in the early stages of understanding the elusive feline. The study's results suggest that mechanically thinning old forests and clearing away deadfall - rather than maintaining a mosaic of natural conditions - creates poor habitat for lynx, a threatened species, and their primary prey, snowshoe hares. The results come at a time when federal wildlife managers have proposed to dramatically expand the amount of critical habitat for lynx, which were listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2000 in the Lower 48 states. The proposed critical habitat is in Montana, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Washington state and Wyoming....
State believes disease responsible for big horn die-off The Nevada Department of Wildlife has been investigating an apparent bighorn sheep die off in the Hay’s Canyon Range, a chain of mountains in northwestern Nevada. The news of a possible disease event in this area came from a 2007 bighorn sheep tag-holder after the hunter observed what appeared to be a sick ewe that was found dead a few hours later. Game wardens retrieved the carcass, which was submitted for veterinary diagnostic work-up and a thorough necropsy examination. The results of the examination, backed up by various laboratory results, confirmed that the ewe died from severe bacterial pneumonia. With funding from Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, the state performed a follow-up aerial survey of the Hay’s Canyon area immediately following the discovery of the first dead ewe and only seven live sheep were observed....
Land Exchange Could Bring Jobs To Santa Teresa Union Pacific railroad's freight volume has increased up to 300 percent in the last 12 years. That is causing the company to target land between El Paso and Los Angeles to create a new fueling and transfer station. New Mexico has made some land in Santa Teresa more attractive. The Union Pacific Railroad hopes to open a rail yard near the Santa Teresa airport to become more efficient in the west. The land is currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management or BLM, and it's working out a deal with the state. The BLM will give up land just west of the airport. In exchange, the BLM will get land in other parts of New Mexico. "When we pick up these lands from BLM we're giving them choice lands in Northern Dona Ana County," said Pat Lyons, NM Commissioner of public lands. Lyons said when that happens, Union Pacific will open its rail yard on 780 acres, bringing up to 350 jobs and a $300 million investment in the economy....If BLM owns the land and Union Pacific needs it, why doesn't BLM just sell it to them? Why go through the huge cost of this land exchange, which even includes lands in Chavez County? This may have as much to do with the lesser prairie chicken as Union Pacific.
Full stream ahead for Lower Owens As blizzards whipped across nearby High Sierra peaks, ecologist William Platts lifted off in a helicopter here and headed north, about 1,000 feet above a river that looked as if it were throwing a tantrum. Beneath him, the squiggle of green was overflowing its banks, inundating a patchwork of oxbows, marshlands, forests and sagebrush. Culverts were nearly filled to capacity, and mats of dislodged tules and muck hurtled down the river. "I really like what I see down there," the 80-year-old Platts told the chopper pilot through the headphone radio. "But we'll need three or four more seasonal pulses to kick-start this ecosystem into gear." The Lower Owens River has flooded for millenniums, but this flood was man-made, part of the most ambitious river restoration project in the West. The river mostly disappeared when the Los Angeles Aqueduct opened in 1913, but 15 months ago engineers began redirecting some aqueduct water into the channel....
Wolf blamed for Two Dot sheep killings Wildlife officials confirmed Friday that a wolf killed five sheep and injured five more near Two Dot. On March 5, a landowner reported seeing a black wolf near his flock. After investigating, USDA Wildlife Services officials concluded that a wolf had attacked the sheep. It is not known if the wolf was alone, and other evidence of wolves in the area was not found. No known wolf packs have been documented in the Two Dot area. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials plan to catch the animal, fit it with a radio collar and release it for further observation. Fish, Wildlife and Parks could not be reached Monday night for more details.
Grouse hunt recommended Biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department recommend that the state continue with an 11-day hunting season for sage grouse this year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering whether sage grouse should be protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. A federal judge in Idaho recently condemned the agency for failing to use the best available science when it decided not to list the bird two years ago. In January 2005, the federal agency determined the chicken-sized bird was not in danger of extinction. The bird's traditional habitat stretches across the West, from eastern California and Washington to Colorado, North Dakota and southern Canada. Biologists with the Wyoming game department, as well as some conservationists, say degradation of the birds' habitat, not hunting, poses the most serious threat to the species' long-term survival. The biologists are recommending the state stick to hunting regulations nearly identical to last year's....
Music that everyone can dance to Country music in a rural honky-tonk inspires writer Rebecca Solnit to ponder the class and cultural underpinnings of the “crisis of environmentalism,” which has caused so much green soul-searching in recent years. “One Nation Under Elvis: An environmentalism for us all,” in the latest issue of Orion Magazine, explores the divide between urban and rural, left and right, environmentalist and rancher in musical tastes. Solnit recalls enviros she’s known who seemed more offended by rural culture and lifestyle (and music) than by any actual damage that culture was doing to the land, or liberals who scorn backward rednecks for their religion and politics. There’s the other side, of course, like people wearing t-shirts that say WRANGLERS (Western Ranchers Against No-Good Leftist Environmental Radical Shitheads). It begins to sound cliché, but of course there’s common ground. Not always, but often, these are artificial divides that we have missed important opportunities to bridge....
The scandal in Boulder that won’t go away The scandal that people are still talking about in Boulder, Colo., isn’t the murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey; it’s about a rich couple “stealing” land from their neighbors -- and getting away with it in court. The latest tidbit involving Dick McLean, a former Boulder Mayor and district court judge, and his wife, an attorney, was revealed recently by local police. It seems that in December, someone sent the couple a package enclosing bullets and a threatening letter (“Back in the old West we had a way to deal with your kind…”). Police said they’ve gotten nowhere on finding the perpetrator, but as a sign of how contentious the issue remains, several online commentators in the Boulder Daily Camera insisted that the couple had sent the package to themselves to garner sympathy. You might wonder why this story about a pricey lot on the ironically named Hardscrabble Drive could rouse such passion. But the land, surrounded by publicly owned open space and spectacular mountain views, is one of the few remaining undeveloped parcels in the neighborhood, where homes sell upwards of $1.2 million. Don and Susie Kirlin have owned the lot since the mid-1980s as part of their retirement plan. In the meantime, they live less than a half-mile away. Like lots of property owners, the Kirlins had never heard of the legal doctrine known as adverse possession before it struck home....
California Regents Sue Animal Activists It was late into the night when 25 people in ski masks descended on professor Dario Ringach's family home. Pounding on the door, frightening his small children, they screamed into megaphones, "Animal killer! We know where you live! We will never give up!" And they apparently meant it. That year, 2006, according to court documents, animal rights activists launched a summer-long campaign of harassment against Ringach, an assistant professor of psychology and neurobiology at the University of California at Los Angeles and other scientists who conduct research with laboratory animals. They hurled firecrackers at his house in the middle of the night and planted Molotov-cocktail-like explosives at other faculty houses, threatening to burn them to the ground. UCLA hired private security, but Ringach feared for his family. "Effectively immediately, I am no longer doing animal research," he finally wrote in an e-mail to his persecutors, pleading to be left alone. "Please don't bother my family anymore." The University of California regents have responded by suing UCLA Primate Freedom, the Animal Liberation Brigade, the Animal Liberation Front and five people allegedly affiliated with them. It is a tactic that the regents successfully employed nine years ago. The regents hope to win a permanent injunction similar to one granted against Last Chance for Animals in 1989. But some experts note that the regents now are battling more violent, Internet-savvy foes who thrive in online communities, post faculty "targets" on Web sites and upload how-to guides for their attacks....
Beef industry reeling from rising feed costs With 11,000 hungry mouths to feed, breakfast at the Weschenfelder Feedlot in Shepherd is measured in tons. Serving time's at 7 a.m. The cattle head to the trough where Dan Weschenfelder doles out the grub for three hours straight. Lately, the dinner bill's been getting bigger. Corn prices, which have more than doubled largely because of ethanol production, have the beef industry staggering. The price per pound for beef isn't rising nearly as quickly as feed costs, and nationally some ranchers are reducing the size of their herds. That reduction of cows to slaughter was the main reason cited by the world's largest meat producer, Tyson Foods, for shuttering a Kansas packing plant in January, leaving 1,500 middle-class workers jobless. Corn costs even drew the attention last week of President Bush, who told ethanol producers that they needed to tap other biofuel sources. The country now produces four times as much ethanol, roughly 6.4 billion gallons in 2007, as it made eight years ago. Much of that fuel is corn-based. Weschenfelder and others in the cattle industry contend they'd be better off if biofuel subsidies weren't driving up corn costs. "Corn is up and it's staying up and, of course, everybody knows that it happened when they started this ethanol stuff," Weschenfelder said. "Yes, it's my preferred feed. I feed up to 400 tons a day, depending on what we're doing. Right now we're feeding 75 tons a day, and corn's $225 a ton. Three years ago, I fed corn for $80 a ton."....