We must howl to Congress to keep the green fire glowing Perched on a mountainside in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley with Park Ranger Rick McIntyre, we eyed the Crystal Creek wolf pack tracking an elk. It was 1995, and these were the first wolves to return to the national park in 60 years. As we watched the alpha male and female loping together across the green thaw of spring grasses, we could not know how these wolves would revitalize this ecosystem, dramatically increasing everything from insects to trees to songbird populations. And yet, with all of these environmental successes, the Bush administration has announced plans to end federal protection for wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. As soon as this month, federal wildlife managers will use our taxpayer dollars to trap, hunt and shoot wolves from airplanes, even kill wolf pups in their dens. This is a wildly unpopular extermination program driven by a small minority of ranchers and hunters who see the wild wolf only as a rival, when, in fact, wolves have much to teach us about ecosystem balance....
Army hints at seller for Pinon expansion Like a grass fire, word spread quickly this week that the Army claims to have a willing seller to provide as much as 100,000 acres for the expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. The only problem is that the largest landowner in the area, Craig Walker of Denver, repeated his refusal Wednesday to sell land to the Army and said he has never spoken to anyone from the Army about his two ranches in the area. "I want to stop this talk as quickly as possible," Walker, who owns approximately 100,000 acres in two different parcels, said. "I'm not interested in selling to the Army. I'm trying to put my land into conservation easements as quickly as possible. I am opposed to the expansion of Pinon Canyon." The discussion of a willing seller broke out Tuesday after Jim Montoya, Las Animas County commissioner, told area ranchers that the Army claims it has been approached by a willing seller who can offer as much as 100,000 acres for the planned expansion of Pinon Canyon. Montoya and the other county commissioners met with Army officials at the Pentagon last week as part of a trip to shore up congressional opposition to the proposed 414,000-acre expansion of the training area northeast of Trinidad....
The Accidental Green Developer Even as he proudly shows off the sustainable features of the Saddlehorn development, Doug Averill shies away from the terms “developer” and “green.” He didn’t intend to be either, he insists. What he and his partners planned just happened to fit the bill. Averill argues that Montanans have always been great environmentalists, acting as good stewards in order to preserve their way of life: “If we weren’t good land stewards, we’d be out of timber, overrun with weeds, with no wildlife or beauty left.” Saddlehorn wasn’t about being green, Averill says, it was about doing what made sense to him as a rancher and what fits with the community. Yet the hardest sell for Saddlehorn, and projects like it, may still be to other Montanans. The state historically hasn’t been warm to the idea of green building, or really any part of the environmental movement. In the Flathead, tensions between businesses and environmentalists are often heated, even drawing national attention when at their most contentious. “I think Montanans have always resented the idea of someone from the outside or an urban area telling us how to be green,” Averill said. “The result is that it’s been somewhat stiff-armed. There’s still this image of a gal sitting up in a tree with hairy legs telling us how to act.”....
EDITORIAL: 'Alarmist and extreme' Some left-wingers and greens don't like the state's new chief of Agriculture. Tony Lesperance, a rancher and former Elko County commissioner, took over the agency Monday at the request of Gov. Jim Gibbons. The 72-year-old Mr. Lesperance, who turned down an earlier offer for the post, said he'll be on the job for about 18 months to see the agency through the state's current budget crunch and the next legislative session. But Launce Rake, a spokesman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, questioned the interim appointment, calling Mr. Lesperance's views "alarmist and extreme." What is it that has Mr. Rake and his "progressive" friends in such a lather? Mr. Lesperance has been a vocal critic of the federal government's land-use policies in Nevada, where it controls 90 percent of the real estate. He played a pivotal role in the controversy that erupted in the late 1990s after the Forest Service -- operating at the behest of hard-core environmental groups -- refused to allow Elko County to rebuild a washed out road near Jarbidge that had been used for decades to access campgrounds and a wilderness area. The standoff became heated and resentment toward heavy-handed federal regulation was palpable in many parts of rural Nevada. But Mr. Lesperance and the "Shovel Brigade" eventually prevailed; the road was repaired and reopened....
Forest Service ponders 'let-burn' policy The U.S. Forest Service is considering allowing some naturally caused wildfires to burn in remote areas of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. The goal is to improve forest health while reducing the potential for catastrophic fires in the long term, forest supervisor Scott Conroy said in a prepared statement. Experts say large fires in the West in recent summers are in part the result of forests overgrown from decades of fire suppression. The proposed change comes as the agency is updating forest management plans created in the 1990s. "Land managers throughout the West have learned over the last 40 years that there are ecological benefits of having fire on the landscape as it can provide for a renewal of the forest," Conroy said. "It is a natural cycle of life in a forest."....
Bill modifies boundaries between public, private land The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill introduced by Sen. Larry Craig, titled the "Idaho Wilderness Boundary Modification Act" on Jan. 30. The bill is a compromise between private and public land officials to alter the boundaries of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area to allow for continued use of the land by the private domain Diamond D Ranch. There will be no net wilderness loss and the ranch will use land it has been using since before the area was protected as wilderness, without the restrictions of operating on wilderness land. The restrictions keep developers from impacting wilderness areas in any way. The boundaries are only being altered, so neither side is losing any land. "The act supports the use of water, roads and fences that pre-date the wilderness area," Will Hart, spokesman for Sen. Craig, said. "The Forest Service has worked with local and congressional delegations to mediate this effort, which is merely a use of development that was there before the wilderness was designated."....
Group acquires oil, gas leases Another company has transferred federal energy leases to a conservation group, further reducing the possibility of natural-gas development on public lands along Montana's wildlife-rich Rocky Mountain Front. Trout Unlimited said this week that it received leases the Kohlman Co. held for potential gas work on the Front, the rugged expanse where the mountains meet the plains for about 100 miles south of Glacier National Park. Trout Unlimited, which has joined other groups in declaring the Front too environmentally sensitive for oil or gas drilling, said it intends to return those leases to the federal government. "The public lands of the Front are some of the wildest country in the lower 48 states," Gene Sentz of the Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front said Tuesday. "We've been working more than 30 years now to try to keep them undeveloped." The lease transfer is atop earlier deals that moved Front leases into the hands of conservationists, who then transferred them to the federal government. With the latest agreement, four companies have sold or donated leases on some 63,000 acres of the Front during the last two years. Conservationists would like an end to energy leases on about twice that much land, said the coalition's Chris Mehl....
Camera spots wolverine in Sierra Nevada A research project aimed at weasels has turned up a bigger prize: a picture of a wolverine, an elusive animal scientists feared may have been driven out of the Sierra Nevada long ago by human activity. The discovery could affect land-use decisions if the wolverine is declared an endangered species, a step the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering, although the animals typically live at high elevations where there is limited development. A graduate student at Oregon State University, Katie Moriarty, got a picture of a wolverine recently on a motion-and-heat-detecting digital camera set up between Truckee and Sierraville, in the northern part of the mountain range. News of the picture surprised scientists, who thought wolverines, if they still inhabited the Sierra, would be found only in the southern part of the range, not in the Lake Tahoe area. There had been sightings of wolverines by reputable people but no solid proof they were still in the Sierra, said Bill Zielinski, a research ecologist for the Forest Service who was working with Moriatry....
Mountain biking outreach efforts grow with popularity The rush of speeding down a rocky trail and the ultimate satisfaction of taking out a grueling climb, switchback after switchback, keep bikers riding the mountain trails around Fort Collins. For more and more local mountain bikers, the thrilling rides to be found all around Fort Collins have inspired them to give something back to the trails they love. They do it by donning the distinctive yellow jerseys of the Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol, an organization that has been educating mountain bikers on Front Range trails for 10 years. The growth and popularity of these patrols in recent years is hard to ignore. Diamond Peaks logged 521 patrols totaling 2,539 hours (106 full days) in 2007, double the patrols and triple the number of hours in the 2006 season....
Too little done to protect endangered species, lawsuit says Environmental groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against three federal agencies, alleging they have failed to protect dozens of endangered species that live in Southern California's four national forests from harmful impacts of off-roading, livestock grazing, roads and power lines. The legal action comes on the heels of a lawsuit California officials filed Feb. 28 against the U.S. Forest Service because the management plans for the San Bernardino, Cleveland, Angeles and Los Padres national forests permit road construction and oil drilling that have been long opposed by the state. The most recent lawsuit specifically targets so-called biological opinions issued in 2005 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service that assessed impacts on endangered species from those same forest management plans. The third target of Wednesday's lawsuit is the U.S. Forest Service. The environmental groups allege those opinions failed to consider ways to prevent harm to species by activities on forest lands, and failed to require any method for tracking how many plants and animals are killed because of those activities....
Off-road vehicle surge straining land agencies The Hayeses are part of a growing trend across the nation and Arizona. Off-road vehicle use has exploded in the past 10 years, straining land-management agencies and risking some of our most sensitive natural resources. State and federal officials are scrambling to deal with the roaring horde of ATV users. All national forests are assessing motorized use of trails, and a Glendale state representative has introduced a bill that would require ATV registration and a user fee to fund education and enforcement. His goal is to preserve access and the land. Rep. Jerry Weiers thinks his bill will pass this year. It passed in the House on Thursday and now goes to the Senate, where in 2007 it failed by one vote when several supporters were absent. Weiers' bill, which would take effect Jan. 1, is not aimed at restricting ATV users, said Jeff Gursh, an avid dirt biker who volunteers with the Arizona Off-Highway Vehicle Coalition. "All it does is give the land management agencies a tool for managing the land," he said. Weiers' bill would create an annual registration fee - estimated at $23 - for off-road vehicles and create a fund for ATV law enforcement, education and trail maintenance and construction. The registration fee would raise about $8 million per year, of which 70 percent would go to the new Off-Highway Vehicle Recreation Fund and 30 percent to the existing Highway User Revenue Fund. Arizona State Parks would get 60 percent of the Recreation Fund, the state Game & Fish Department would get 35 percent and the State Land Department would get 5 percent....
Reserve-area residents fined for illegal outfitting, guiding A federal judge has fined three brothers—two outfitters and a guide—more than $7,000 after they were accused of violating regulations while outfitting or guiding hunters in the Gila National Forest. Michael DeLaO, Jamie DeLaO, and Carlos DeLaO, all from the Reserve area, were cited last year for not complying with federal and state special use permit requirements for commercial operations. U.S. Magistrate William P. Lynch recently sentenced the brothers on charges filed after an investigation by the state Department of Game and Fish and the Gila National Forest. Michael DeLaO, 29, pleaded guilty to noncompliance with U.S. Forest Service special use permits and use of an unauthorized guide and was fined $3,880. Jamie DeLaO, 34, pleaded guilty to the same charges and was fined $3,030. Carlos DeLaO, 36, pleaded guilty to operating a commercial business on Forest Service lands without a special use permit and unauthorized guiding on the forest, and was fined $325....
Mining proposal called wildlife threat Environmental groups have fired off a new round of court challenges to the proposed Rock Creek Mine, arguing that extracting silver and copper from beneath the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness Area would result in the deaths of protected grizzly bears and bull trout. The lawsuits accuse federal agencies of violating the Endangered Species Act by approving the mine. "Grizzly and bull-trout populations are suffering. It's going to be hard for them to survive the industrialization of their habitat," said Jim Costello, Montana field organizer for the Rock Creek Alliance. The alliance is one of 10 groups involved in two separate lawsuits against the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The paperwork was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Missoula. Fifteen or fewer grizzlies are still believed to roam the Cabinet Mountains, a rugged range on the Idaho-Montana border. How the mine would affect grizzly bears, threatened bull trout and water quality in the Clark Fork River has been the subject of numerous lawsuits since the mine was first proposed in the 1980s. The Clark Fork River flows into Idaho's Lake Pend Oreille shortly after crossing the state line....
Marbled murrelet will keep territory Federal wildlife officials have dropped controversial plans to sharply reduce the area of critical habitat reserved for the marbled murrelet, a seabird known for standing in the way of Northwest logging. The decision reverses earlier efforts, supported by the timber industry, to scale back protections for the bird, which is classified as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. It could also complicate a proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to accelerate logging in Oregon's Coast Range. The agency wants to produce more timber revenue in financially strapped coastal counties. In 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed canceling about 95 percent of the designated critical habitat for the marbled murrelet, saying the area was already protected. But environmental groups complained that the move would pave the way for more intensive logging. Critical habitat comes into play mainly on federal land. Public land agencies must consult with wildlife biologists before proposing timber sales and other projects in critical habitat. The Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that it would be inappropriate to reduce the habitat for the bird while the BLM is considering changes in managing the coastal lands....
Thousands of acres near Gunnison Gorge off limits to humans Thousands of acres near the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area will be off limits to humans to protect wildlife, including the threatened sage grouse, and prevent soil erosion. The 17,570 acres on parts of the Black Ridge and Fruitland mesas, west of the Gunnison Gorge Wilderness, will be closed to hiking, horseback, skiing, and motorized activity through April 30. Bureau of Land Management officials, who manage the land, fear snow and poor conditions on other nearby public lands could drive people to the area being closed....
Brazilian meat packers jump to top spot in U.S. A Brazilian firm is buying two of the top five beef processing companies in the United States, making it the nation's largest meat processor and drawing fire from a national cattle group over further concentration in the meatpacking industry. Smithfield Foods said Wednesday it is selling its beef operations for $565 million to Brazil's JBS SA, the second deal in two days for the Brazilian company. Smithfield Foods is the fifth-largest U.S. beef producer. On Tuesday, National Beef Packing Co., the nation's fourth-largest beef processor, said it is being acquired by JBS for cash and stock in a deal worth $560 million. The acquisitions will vault JBS past Cargill Meat Solutions for the top spot in U.S. meat processing companies. Randy Stevenson of Wheatland, Wyo., an official with R-CALF USA, said the moves, if approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, show the importance of getting competition reforms included in the new farm bill....
Festival celebrates Wallace Stegner's West Point Reyes Station, that oddly blended enclave of businesses, farms and artists in rural West Marin, is about to be invaded by hundreds of fans of the modern American West's foremost man of letters: Wallace Stegner. A three-day conference beginning Friday is being staged to salute both the never-ending battle to save Western wildlands and Stegner, who championed that cause up to the day he died in 1993 at age 84. It will be one of the greatest gatherings of Western literature writers willing to chew grass blades with anyone who cares to chat. For the uninitiated, "Western" writing has little to do these days with cowboy and Indian adventures. It instead means prose, poetry and research about the region from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast that has for more than a century defined the American essence of frontier mentality, individual ruggedness and wilderness. Authors such as John Steinbeck and Edward Abbey have earned renown here, but it's never been an easy publishing road. As Stegner himself discovered - even through penning the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Angle of Repose" and 27 other books - the West and its writers are often ignored by what many regard an Eastern-based literary snobbishness....