Sierra Club removes leadership of its Florida chapter The Sierra Club's national board voted March 25 to remove the leaders of the Club's 35,000-member Florida chapter, and to suspend the Chapter for four years. It was the first time in the Club's 116-year history that such action has been taken against a state Chapter. The leadership of the Florida Chapter had been highly critical of the national board's decision in mid-December 2007 to allow The Clorox Company to use the Sierra Club's name and logo to market a new line of non-chlorinated cleaning products called "Green Works." In return, Clorox Company will pay Sierra Club an undisclosed fee, based partly on product sales. The Clorox Company logo will appear on the products as well. A 2004 report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund named The Clorox Company as one of the nation's most chemically dangerous. The Clorox deal has angered and embittered Club members all across the country, not just in Florida. Since the deal was announced in January, 2008, the Club's national leadership has deflected many requests by Club members to see the text of the legal agreement signed with
Clorox....
'Lights Out' for Earth Hour From Rome's Colosseum to the Sydney Opera House, floodlit icons of civilization went dark Saturday for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the threat of climate change. The environmental group WWF urged governments, businesses and households to turn back to candle power for at least 60 minutes starting at 8 p.m. wherever they were. The campaign began last year in Australia, and traveled this year from the South Pacific to Europe in cadence with the setting of the sun. Several U.S. cities also planned symbolic blackouts or dimmings of monuments, including at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Earth Hour officials hoped 100 million people would turn off their nonessential lights and electronic goods for the hour. Electricity plants produce greenhouse gases that fuel climate change....
Evangelicals Like It Hot SUPPOSEDLY GLOBAL WARMING IS the wedge issue that will peel evangelicals away from their conservative voting habits and their ostensible preoccupation with sexual mores. So when the president of the conservative-led 16 million member Southern Baptist Convention signed a Global Warming statement, headlines blazed, and the evangelical left cheered. But the church's president has since attempted to clarify. And the head of the denomination's official public policy arm is publicly opposing congressional legislation mandating increased carbon caps. The March 10 "Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change" was organized by 25-year-old seminary student Jonathan Merritt, the son of a former Southern Baptist president. His father and another former church president signed the statement, along with prominent seminary faculty, adding nearly 50 notable signatures. Richard Land, head of the church's official Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, conspicuously declined to sign, disagreeing that the church had been "too timid." He also explained that endorsing a stance at variance with the church's official position would be "misleading and unethical." Land was referencing the church's 2007 resolution "On Global Warming," which was notably skeptical about human-induced climate change. It declared that "global temperature has risen and fallen cyclically throughout geologic history" and that the "scientific community is divided regarding the extent to which humans are responsible for recent global warming." It also warned that "forcing developing countries to comply with Kyoto will significantly inhibit their economic development and the development of the international economy" and that "proposed carbon offset programs will have little impact on reducing rising temperatures if human activity is not a significant cause of recent global warming."....
World governments start talks on halting greenhouse gases Governments from 163 countries will launch discussions Monday on forging a global warming agreement, a process expected to be fraught with disagreements over which countries should take the lead to reduce greenhouse gases by as much as half by 2050. The weeklong, United Nations climate meeting in Bangkok comes on the heels of a historic agreement reached in December to draft a new accord on global warming by 2009. Without a pact to rein in rising greenhouse gases in the next two decades, scientists say warming weather will lead to widespread drought, floods, higher sea levels and worsening storms. "(There is a) very cooperative and constructive mood, a great enthusiasm to take this work forward," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is hosting the Thailand meeting. However, de Boer also said Sunday it would be "incredibly challenging" to craft such a complex agreement over the next two years....
Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate Former vice president Al Gore will launch a three-year, $300 million campaign Wednesday aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history. The Alliance for Climate Protection's "we" campaign will employ online organizing and television advertisements on shows ranging from "American Idol" to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." It highlights the extent to which Americans' growing awareness of global warming has yet to translate into national policy changes, Gore said in an hour-long phone interview last week. He said the campaign, which Gore is helping to fund, was undertaken in large part because of his fear that U.S. lawmakers are unwilling to curb the human-generated emissions linked to climate change. "This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this crisis," Gore said. "I've tried everything else I know to try. The way to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it." Private contributors have already donated or committed half the money needed to fund the entire campaign, he said....
American West Heating Nearly Twice As Fast As Rest Of World The American West is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world, according to a new analysis of the most recent federal government temperature figures. The news is especially bad for some of the nation’s fastest growing cities, which receive water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The average temperature rise in the Southwest’s largest river basin was more than double the average global increase, likely spelling even more parched conditions. “Global warming is hitting the West hard,” said Theo Spencer of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “It is already taking an economic toll on the region’s tourism, recreation, skiing, hunting and fishing activities. The speed of warming and mounting economic damage make clear the urgent need to limit global warming pollution.” For the report, the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) analyzed new temperature data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for 11 western states. For the five-year period 2003-2007 the average temperature in the Colorado River Basin, which stretches from Wyoming to Mexico, was 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the historical average for the 20th Century. The temperature rise was more than twice the global average increase of 1.0 degree during the same period. The average temperature increased 1.7 degrees in the entire 11-state western region....
A Wolf Saved From Extinction but Snared in Politics The uncertainty surrounding the Mexican gray wolf, also known as el lobo, highlights the challenge of meshing conservation with politics. While biologists and zookeepers have saved the Mexican wolf, the most genetically distinct subspecies of gray wolf in North America, federal managers are struggling to translate this success into a working recovery program in the field. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Fish and Wildlife Service paid a trapper named Roy McBride to capture several Mexican wolves south of the border. That group of five, which has expanded in captivity to more than 300, is the source of every Mexican wolf that now exists in the United States, posing a genetic challenge for biologists hoping to help the species recover. At first glance, there is no reason that Mexican wolves should not make the same sort of robust recovery that gray wolves have made in the northern Rockies. But the northern wolves have more than three times as much quality habitat as the wolves in the Southwest. And a trickier problem government officials face is that the politically influential ranching community in the Southwest has opposed the wolves' reintroduction, and the officials, in seeking to accommodate those interests, have satisfied no one. Early in the process, federal officials created what Oakleaf called "artificial boundaries where wolves can be present or not" -- if a wolf goes beyond the official Blue Range Recovery Area, which spans 9,290 square miles, it is relocated. In addition, in 2005, Fish and Wildlife put into place "standard operating procedure 13.0," which calls for the permanent removal of wolves that come into conflict with livestock....
Wolves Delisted, Local Rancher Is Still Worried It's official, wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are no longer on the endangered species list. This means each state is preparing for a fall hunt, the first of it's kind in decades. One Challis Rancher says almost 50 of his head of cattle have been killed by the growing population of wolves and he's not convinced the delisting will make a dent in the growing population. "We are sustaining tremendous losses as a result of the wolves," says Rancher Gary Chamberlain. Chamberlain started his Challis ranch in the late 60's, back when wolves were virtually extinct in Idaho, "I fell in love with the country," he says. He says it's unfortunate that the wolves love the country around Challis too. "Problem we've got is as numbers of wolves have gotten to be so many they've moved into area that now effect those people that are grazing." Right now Chamberlain's cows are in his pastures, where they're safe. The danger comes when they move into the range in the mountains come May. "In 2006 we lost 18 calves and 11 cows out in Morgan Creek," recalls Morgan. In 2007 he says he lost 11 calves and 6 cows. The grand total of deaths between the two years is 46. A number of kills Chamberlain had never seen before wolves were reintroduced. Interestingly, of all the cows killed Wildlife Services was only able to confirm one as a wolf kill. Chamberlain says that's because it's difficult to prove. "Problem we get is if it's been a day or two, they have the animal cleaned up to the point that you have troubles. Unless you can find wolf scat, or tracks its difficult to determine if its a wolf kill."....
What's next for Wolves? George Edwards doesn't work for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, the agency now in charge of managing wolves in the state. But his work will play a large role in maintaining a viable wolf population in Montana by building public acceptance of the wolf, particularly in the ranching community, state officials said. Edwards, who works for the Department of Livestock, is the state's first livestock loss mitigation coordinator. Beginning next month, livestock producers will submit their financial claims to Edwards for animals hunted and killed by the state's now thriving wolf population. Wolves, which number more than 400 in Montana and 1,500 in the Northern Rockies, came off the federal endangered species list Friday, turning management over to the states. The price tag for reimbursing ranchers, as well as funding guard dogs and other conflict prevention efforts, is expected to cost more than $200,000 annually. The money won't just come from the state, as federal funding also will be sought. One of Edwards' main jobs will be fundraising. Edwards noted that some of the state's most prominent residents, such as cable TV mogul Ted Turner, will be asked to contribute....
Family sues state, feds over deadly bear attack In the moments after a black bear hauled off her 11-year-old son in American Fork Canyon last June, Rebecca Ives said she clutched her other son until help, summoned by her husband, arrived. Rescuers placed yellow tape around the family's campsite and took them to safety. What makes her angry is that such markers should have been placed around the site before the family arrived. The bear that killed Sam Ives raided campers earlier that morning and authorities were notified. The question she asked Friday after she and her family filed federal and state lawsuits: Why weren't they warned? "We would have known something was up if there was just yellow tape up there, and I would still have my son," a tearful Ives said at attorney Allen K. Young's Provo office. Their suits are seeking $2 million from the U.S. Forest Service and $550,000 from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR), which is protected by a state-mandated damages cap. The suits - they name Ives, husband Tim Mulvey, and Sam's natural father, Kevan Francis, as plaintiffs - take the agencies to task for not warning campers that a dangerous bear was on the loose and failing to close the campground until officials could locate and kill the bear....
State, wildlife advocates spar over cattle grazing issue He's just a Kittitas County cattleman trying to make a living, but controversy swirls all around Russ Stingley. On one side are the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Cattlemen's Association, brought together by the governor's office to allow grazing on large swaths of state wildlife land. On the other side are critics who oppose letting cattle graze on land specifically purchased for wildlife and question its benefits. One Idaho-based conservation group has even sued, saying the state took shortcuts in order to fast-track cattle grazing. In the middle stands Stingley, awaiting state approval to put his cattle out on 18,500 acres over six pastures of rolling shrub-steppe land known as the Skookumchuck, located east of Ellensburg and home to thousands of elk. The state Fish and Wildlife Commission is expected to sign off on the grazing permit in the next two or three weeks. But every day he waits costs money. Like many Eastern Washington cattlemen, Stingley has more cattle than land and relies on lease permits to graze his livestock on state, federal and private land....
Government scientists look askance at an administration logging proposal for Oregon's Coast Range A Bush administration proposal to accelerate logging in Oregon's Coast Range faces new criticism by the government's own scientists, who say the plan probably underestimates the environmental harm it would do and may exaggerate how much timber could actually be cut. The scientists, including state and federal experts on forests, fish, wildlife and economics, also said the logging blueprint issued last year by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management did not use the most recent and relevant science on subjects such as wildlife habitat and water quality. The blueprint affects about 2.5 million acres of federally managed forestland rich in timber and wildlife. Logging in the region dropped sharply more than a decade ago amid extra protection for such species as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet, and coastal counties have pressed to push logging levels back up. The Bush administration struck a 2003 legal deal with the timber industry to look at eliminating permanent wildlife reserves on the land -- a move that would promote more logging. The BLM issued a draft proposal advancing that approach last year and asked the panel of state and federal scientists to review it. The opinion of the scientists, posted on a BLM Web site about a week ago, fills nearly 100 pages and is very critical. It suggests that the BLM used simplistic models to examine the effects of logging on fish and wildlife habitat, and generally ignored major environmental issues such as climate change, which could contribute to more wildfires that leave fewer trees to cut....
Officials: 'Trans-Texas Corridor' a taboo, but need real The Trans-Texas Corridor is now so controversial, merely uttering the words in most political circles is taboo. "We're calling it a 'regional loop' because you can't say 'Trans-Texas Corridor' in the state of Texas anymore," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. "The Trans-Texas Corridor is a lightning rod," he told visiting state representatives this week while explaining how the corridor would connect to regional highways by 2030. Opposition to the proposed construction of a $184 billion network of toll roads during the next 50 years is so strong statewide that lawmakers now question whether it's wise for the Texas Transportation Department to continue planning the huge project in its current form. But transportation officials say they must press on. While opposing views must be respected, the state can't afford to ignore its growing traffic problems, Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston said this week. "Clearly the Trans-Texas Corridor name has developed some controversy in and of itself," Holmes said. "That does not diminish the need for mobility in the state." In the past two years, the Metroplex region and the Houston region both have created more jobs than any state in the union, he said. Despite Morris' hesitation to mention the Trans-Texas Corridor by name, North Texas leaders generally back the plan. Most are desperate to fix the region's growing traffic problems, clean up the air and keep the economy going in the nation's fourth-largest metropolitan area. Elsewhere in Texas, common criticisms are that the corridor plan would take too much property out of the hands of private landowners, impose tolls in rural areas where drivers don't want them and turn over control of Texas roads to private, often foreign-owned companies....
Bison killing rumors whisper through Fairplay It is whispered maybe a dozen times a day in this tiny former gold mining town plopped in the middle of a lot of central Colorado nothingness. It is a fairly odd statement that at first makes the head spin. "The Indians did it." It is always said in an under-the-breath, highly conspiratorial way, the speaker at first shifting his or her eyes this way and that, before leaning back and nodding. "The Indians," they whisper, tapping your hand. It is the talk of this town of 752 souls, the horrific slaughter two weeks ago of rancher Monte Downare's 32 bison by at least 14 men, the majority of whom were caught standing over or not far from their kills. What appears clear, townsfolk and lawmen here say, is that the slaughter is but the latest chapter in the long-running feud between Monte Downare (pronounced Dawn-ARE-ray) and Texas high-tech exec Jeff Hawn, whose ranches abut each other southeast of Hartsel near here in southeastern Park County. "The men who did this are lucky the sheriff, and not the men in here, caught them first," Duke Marsh, 68, bellows while standing in the middle of the crowded Silverheels Truck Stop just off U.S. 285 near the entrance to the town. "They would still be hanging by their (genitals)," he spits to the nodding approval of the others. "No feud should end with the killing of any man's livestock."....
Family Study Associates Pesticide Use With Parkinson's Risk Parkinson's disease has been linked to exposure to pesticides in a new study comparing people with the neurological disorder and their unaffected relatives. The study, published online in the open-access journalBMC Neurology, found the strongest ties to the use of herbicides and insecticides, such as organochlorides and organophosphates. Drinking well water or living or working on a farm, two common experiences for pesticide exposures, did not appear to be associated with Parkinson's. Many Parkinson's disease cases are thought to be due to an interaction between genetic and environmental factors. By studying related individuals who share environmental and genetic backgrounds, researchers said they could identify specific differences in exposures between individuals with and without the disease....
Farmers consider how much corn to plant As spring planting nears, farmers are making a choice that could affect what Americans pay for everything from car fuel to chicken wings. If they choose to plant as much corn as possible, prices that have soared to record highs above $5 a bushel could stabilize. But if many farmers rotate their plantings to other crops such as soybeans, or the season is disrupted by bad weather or drought, the price of this key ingredient could soar even further. That would leave other food producers — especially poultry, beef and pork companies, where corn feed comprises up to three-quarters of their operating costs — with little choice but to raise their prices as well. Livestock producers typically blame higher corn prices on demand for the crop from ethanol plants, saying the alternative fuel drives up costs for everyone. But ethanol makers say the rising corn prices hurt them as well....
Willie Nelson protests dairy and cow treatment Country singer Willie Nelson has joined a campaign targeting Dublin-based Challenge Dairy for using products that come from a calf ranch that "violates state anti-cruelty laws," according to a lawsuit filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund. An online petition urges the Dublin facility as well as St. Paul, Minn.-based Land O'Lakes to stop using milk from calves raised at the Mendes Calf Ranch in Tipton in the Central Valley. "As a cowboy, I must stand up for cows," Nelson said in a cover letter for the petition, which now has more than 23,000 signatures. "It's a tragedy to see the small-town farmer, who cared deeply for his backyard animals, is rapidly being edged out by huge facilities that look more like factories than farms -- and treat animals no better than machines." The petition was started in October. In June 2006, the ALDF filed lawsuit against Mendes for allegedly isolating and confining newborn calves in crates, which they say is illegal....Any comments on Willie calling himself a "cowboy"?
JBS Swift Merger Plan Sparks Opposition In Cattle Country The Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) joined with over 70 organizations to ask the Department of Justice to block acquisition of Smithfield Beef and National Beef by JBS Swift. In a letter to the department, the groups asked the Antitrust Division to “scrutinize the merger, issue a second request, and strongly consider blocking the deal.” The organizations stated the proposed merger “will harm price, choice, innovation and competition in the beef industry.” The groups’ main concern is with the buying market for cattle. The organizations also noted that fewer major meat processors would likely have adverse effects on consumers. JBS Swift, a Brazilian company, announced plans in March to buy the companies, two of biggest U.S. meat packers. If approved, the merger would make JBS Swift the largest meat packer in the U.S. and the world. The acquisition would reduce the largest meat packers in this country from five to three. Many Western ranchers have long been concerned with the consolidation of the meat packing industry and its impact on family-based livestock producers....
Revolution on the Range: The Rise of a New Ranch in the American West Courtney White. Island, $25.99 (218p) ISBN 978-1-59726-174-6 In a time when environmental reporting has become justifiably gloomy, this book is a refreshing breath of pragmatic optimism. Environmentalist White highlights quirky, visionary individuals and their innovative methods to improve the quality of the ranges and mountains of the West, such as biologist Bill Zeedyk, who restores riparian areas and water tables using sticks and rocks to simply and cheaply mimic a creek’s natural meandering, and activist Dan Dagget, who has been able to unite environmentalists and ranchers by focusing on common goals (open space, wildlife, restored streams). White promotes implementation of the “New Ranch,” operating “on the principle that the natural processes that sustain wildlife habitat, biological diversity and functioning watersheds are the same processes that make land productive for livestock... where erosion has diminished, where streams and springs, once dry, now flow, where wildlife is more abundant, and where landowners are more profitable as a result.” White’s vision of stewardship, openness to new ideas, giving as well as taking, and flexibility will inspire anyone who loves humanity or the great outdoors. (June)
Cattle dogs, owners compete to see who is the best It takes more than just bark to move a full-grown steer into a holding pen, it takes courage. “They have to have a lot of courage because of what their job is. They might have to move a 1,200-pound cow. Sometimes the only way they can get across what they are doing is with a bite,” said Jon Gamble, trials director for the sixth annual Billy Hindman Memorial Cattle Dog Trials. The event is a two-day cattle dog competition at Nine Mile Ranch, just south of Touchet. In the competition, master and dog team up to drive cattle into various holding pens. At the heart of the competition is the chance to show your dog’s stuff. “It’s a chance for ranch people with working dogs to show their dogs to see who is the best,” Gamble said. But nowadays you don’t have to be a rancher to be into cattle dog competitions. “You get people from all walks of life, people who are carpet layers, people who aren’t ranchers,” Gamble said. “People who are there for a love of the sport.” This weekend some 60 owners entered the cattle dog competition, which includes various classes from pro class to nursery class (younger dogs). Last year’s purse came to around $2,000 for the winner. Gamble had yet to tabulate what this year’s winner will take home, but he did add that winning here can lead to an even bigger payoff at the national competition in Red Bluff, Calif, where dogs are know to sell for $16,000 or more....
Story of Carlsbad's cowboys now published A book highlighting some of Carlsbad's cowboy days will be the subject of an upcoming local presentation by the novel's two authors. "A Red Howell Fit," written by Beth Smith Howell Aycock and Jorga Riggenbach, is a historical novel based on the life of southwestern rancher Lewis "Red" Howell — Aycock's father. "These people were all real," said Aycock, 88. "Of course I embellished it. You are not writing a history, but that's the way we lived during that era." Aycock was born on a ranch near Lakewood, in Eddy County. "I lived there until around 1929, then we moved to Weed, New Mexico," she said. "A Red Howell Fit" includes references to Queen, area rodeo grounds and nearby ranches, she said. Aycock said she still has family in the area....
Doctor made house calls — by parachute More than 60 years ago, before helicopters were used for mountain and wilderness rescues, Helena’s Dr. Amos “Bud” Little was making rescues from the sky. In 1944, Little, then 27 and serving as an Air Force “paradoctor,” gained national recognition for one of the most daring parachute rescues in U.S. history in a remote region of the Colorado Rockies known as Hell’s Half Acre. “Shortly after midnight on June 14, 1944, a B-17 Flying Fortress out of Rapid City, S.D., bound for Greeley, Colo., had crashed on the north side of Crown Peak in the Roosevelt National Forest, just below the snow and timberline at 10,800 feet,” according to a July 1999 Wildland Firefighter magazine article titled “The Savior Who Fell From The Sky” by Mark Matthews. Three of the bomber’s 10 crew members were killed instantly. Another died the next morning. Two survivors were able to walk down from the mountain. The other four were injured too badly to leave the site, including one with a broken back. Little’s heroics were reported in three national magazines — Time, Coronet and Reader’s Digest. “Soon, a bomber, with an Army doctor aboard, was on its way to the rocky ledge where the four injured men lay,” stated the Time article of July 10, 1944. “The doctor first dropped a parachute load of supplies from the circling (UC-54), then jumped himself. When the main rescue party arrived by land, nearly four hours later, the patients had been fed, bandaged and drugged to ease their pain....