Do mountain bison still roam Yellowstone? The National Park Service needs to investigate whether a subspecies of bison might still roam Yellowstone National Park, a former park ranger said. Bob Jackson, a critic of the Park Service and former Yellowstone ranger, says mountain bison lived on the high-elevation Mirror Plateau south of Lamar Valley for thousands of years before the plains bison were reintroduced to the park. Though the bison have likely interbred, he said, the Mirror Plateau bison likely retained much of their genetic heritage and their “culture,” which has enabled them to survive for thousands of years without leaving the park. “This is an animal that doesn’t go outside of Yellowstone because they are so wary,” Jackson said of the mountain bison. The mountain herd numbers roughly 300 animals and spends winters in Yellowstone, he said. But outfitter camps set up in and around the area where the bison roam could be disturbing the herd, he said. Jackson, who is a private bison rancher, said Yellowstone biologists need to step up their research on the Mirror Plateau to ensure the mountain bison’s long-term viability. Further, he said wildlife managers need to give the herd access to more backcountry areas. Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said recent reviews of scientific literature suggest that there is no difference between the Mirror Plateau bison and reintroduced bison....
Neighbor county OKs drilling ban The Rio Arriba County Commissioners unanimously passed an amended moratorium on new oil and gas drilling within their county, approving a four-month ban while it continues to study environmental concerns. Local oil and gas producers say the move by San Juan County's eastern neighbors will limit new orders for area energy production and will affect local jobs. The four-month ban exempts municipal and American Indian lands. It allows Rio Arriba County to assert its authority over federal and state lands unless it is pre-empted by the federal or state governments. The ban originally was written for a six-month period. Approach Resources, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company that wants to drill test wells for oil east of Tierra Amarilla, sent a letter to county commissioners that stopped shy of saying the company would sue if the moratorium passed, according to Gobernador rancher Don Schreiber. "They didn't say they would sue, they said everything but sue,' but the threat was imminent," Schreiber said. He calls the commissioners' action, "A fabulous victory for oil and gas responsibility in the nation."....
Sheep aid in fire prevention Hundreds of sheep are once again helping prepare Carson City for the summer fire season, Assistant Open Space Manager Anne Bollinger said this week. Beginning in early April, two bands of about 1,000 animals each were released on C Hill and in the Timberline area and encouraged to graze on flammable cheat grass to their hearts’ content. The project, a joint effort of the city, the United States Forest Service and other agencies, is cheaper, safer and easier than other fuel reduction methods, Bollinger said. “Due to the slopes in the mountains, you simply can’t bring a mower in,” she said. “All the sheep need is water.” As in previous years, rancher Ted Borda provided the animals at almost no cost to the city. All told, Carson pays just $5,000 for the sheep’s services, most of which goes toward transporting the creatures. The sheep will remain in the area until mid-May, at which point workers will herd them across town and on to their summer grounds, Bollinger said.
Wyo Range environmental study should start over Gov. Dave Freudenthal was right to protest a Denver energy company's influence over proposed oil and gas leasing in the Wyoming Range. The U.S. Forest Service has breached the public's trust and should start the process over. In his letter to the Forest Service, the governor exposed the unbelievable control Stanley Energy has had over an environmental study of leasing in the Big Piney Ranger District in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The company is the high bidder for some of the leases in question in a 44,720-acre area of the district, but it's important to remember that leasing has not been authorized. Despite that procedural omission, Stanley has been allowed to guide and fund planning and studies for the proposed leasing. The Forest Service even let the company recommend a consultant for the environmental study, though the agency ultimately chose a different one. A memorandum of understanding between the Forest Service and Stanley aptly demonstrates the too-cozy relationship. The document protects oral and written communication between the two parties from disclosure "to preserve the integrity of the deliberative process." Freudenthal correctly noted, "In my mind, the integrity of a deliberative process is best safe guarded by transparency rather than secrecy." The memorandum offered Stanley the opportunity to review public comments and offer input on them while the study was being written. The Forest Service would be obligated to "accept and utilize information" submitted by the company. The Forest Service has proposed lifting the current suspension of earlier leases, and issuing leases that were sold but not issued in 2006. "It could be suggested that Stanley has purchased a favorable outcome," Freudenthal told the feds....
The Eagle Cam: A new reality show in your National Forest There is a life and death struggle going on right now in the snowy Cascades of your Deschutes National Forest. Eagles are battling the cold to protect their precious eggs. Will they succeed? Will they survive? Live streaming video of bald eagles in the wild is now available via a website from the Forest Service at http://www.fs.fed.us/outdoors/naturewatch/eaglecam.html. In the fall of 2003 two video cameras were placed near the nest by Phil Allen and Tim Brown (Installation Contractors) under the direction of Don Virgovic, the National Naturewatch Program Leader for the Forest Service, and Joan Kittrell, Crescent Ranger District Wildlife Biologist. After several years of technical difficulties the camera and the birds are finally cooperating. The purpose of this cooperative project is to bring live video of wild eagles and wild salmon onto the World Wide Web and to the Oregon Zoo's Great Northwest Exhibit where the same species are kept in captivity....
Court sides with Forest Service in Bitterroot backfire case An appeals court panel stood behind U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy's ruling that the U.S. Forest Service firefighters can not be sued for negligence for setting a backfire in the Bitterroot Valley in 2000. 100 Bitterroot Valley residents filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service for violating policy when they lit the backfire. Residents claimed firefighters were negligent and burned dozens of homes and cost $54 million in damages. Judge Molloy ruled the firefighters have immunity and exercised discretion....There's that immunity again.
BLM issues proposals The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has issued its list for the latest round of proposed land conservation purchases and public land projects under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act. The federal law allows the sale of federally owned land around Las Vegas, with part of the proceeds being used to buy environmentally sensitive parcels elsewhere in the state, as well as for upgrades to parks and other public land amenities. More than 40 projects are proposed totaling more than $80.25 million. Two proposed conservation acquisitions are in Douglas County, including 350 acres of Nevada's oldest ranch near Genoa. Known as Ranch No. 1, the property is located along Genoa's eastern boundary, and the recommendation is for nearly $5.2 million. The former Trimmer Ranch is owned and operated under the Ranch No. 1 Limited Partnership. It was the first ranch established after Genoa was settled in 1851. Under the program, property owners would continue to use the land for livestock grazing and hay farming, but all nonagricultural commercial, industrial, mining and residential development rights would be purchased by the BLM. The easement would tie the water rights to the land and prior approval would be required to modify vegetation near the river and creeks....
Lawsuit: Cedar City prairie dogs endangered by golf course relocation bid A colony of Utah prairie dogs living on a Cedar City golf course could be wiped out if a federal wildlife agency insists of relocating them to other habitats, conservationists say in a lawsuit. Under a plan crafted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, prairie dog trapping is set to resume at the Cedar Ridge public golf course on July 1. Captured animals would be taken to U.S. Forest Service land. But previous relocation experience shows all but a few of the animals would die, said Nicole Rosmarino of New Mexico-based WildEarth Guardians, formerly called Forest Guardians. "They should be protected where they are. As it stands, it is little more than an extermination program. Forest Guardians, the Utah Environmental Congress, the Center for Native Ecosystems and naturalist-author Terry Tempest Williams on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City seeking a court order to stop the prairie dog management plan. The conservationists filed a similar lawsuit in October, but the case is moving too slowly through the court to avert this summer's trapping season, Rosmarino said....
State agents begin trapping sea lions at Bonneville Dam; judge bars killing The on-again, off-again permission for Oregon and Washington officials to kill salmon-gobbling sea lions below Bonneville Dam is off again, courtesy of a federal appeals court injunction issued Wednesday. But the appeals court said state officials could capture problem sea lions and ship them to zoos. On Thursday, state agents began the trapping effort. Oregon wildlife officials said two sea lions were captured at the dam Thursday morning. One was branded C-739, a sea lion whose hearty appetite was known to officials. The other was unbranded and will get a reprieve. It was to be taken downriver to Astoria, branded and released. The sea lions gather at Bonneville Dam to feast on salmon, including imperiled species, gathering to climb the dam's fish ladder. Frustrated fishermen and biologists fear the animals' appetite is cutting into billion-dollar efforts to restore Northwest salmon. Roughly 25 to 30 sea lions have stationed themselves at the dam, but as many as 60 - a new record - gathered there a few weeks ago, said Brian Gorman of the National Marine Fisheries Service. He said the sea lions eat a total of 50 to 100 adult chinook salmon a day....
Biodiversity claims will make you sick ‘Biodiversity loss — it will make you sick.” This is the latest claim from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, the huge environmental organization and supposed guardian of endangered species. According to an IUCN-sponsored book, Sustaining Life, the world stands to lose a whole range of undiscovered medicinal marvels because of fast-disappearing plant, fish and animal species: “The experts warn that we may lose many of the land and marine-based life forms of economic and medical interest before we can learn their secrets, or, in some cases, before we know they exist.” But hang on. According to the IUCN’s own figures, the annual rate of extinction of known species is around zero! Meanwhile claims of species loss of 40,000 a year, which are endlessly regurgitated, are based on ultra-pessimistic assumptions about the ongoing fate of undiscovered species. Obviously no medicinal benefits could have come from species that we don’t know. And to deliver a list of cures that might come from unknown species is disingenuous, especially if you are part of a scheme that is effectively holding up pharmaceutical research. The authors do provide one example: of the extinction of “gastric brooding frogs” which they claim “could have” led to new insights into the treatment of peptic ulcers. But if these frogs were only found in “undisturbed rain forests” in Australia in the 1980s, and had such potential value, why were they allowed to go extinct? The story sounds fishy, but not as fishy as the whole thesis of a “biotic holocaust” that allegedly endangers the future of medicinal discovery. In fact, the IUCN book is pure propaganda ahead of the massive meeting on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is due to bog down expensively in Bonn next month....
Hundreds of EPA scientists report political interference More than half of the scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency who responded to a survey said they had experienced political interference in their work. The survey results show "an agency under siege from political pressures," said the Union of Concerned Scientists report, which was released Wednesday and sent to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. The online questionnaire was sent to 5,419 EPA scientists last summer; 1,586 replied, and of those, 889 reported that they had experienced at least one type of interference within the last five years. Such allegations are not new: During much of the Bush administration, there have been reports of the White House watering down documents on climate change, industry language inserted into EPA power-plant regulations and scientific advisory panels' conclusions about toxic chemicals going unheeded. She acknowledged that scientists who were frustrated or upset might have been more likely than those who were satisfied to respond to her organization's survey, but added: "Nearly 900 EPA scientists reported political interference in their scientific work. That's 900 too many."....Most long term observers will have noticed that science drifts to the left under Democrats and to the right under Republicans. The only difference is they don't seem to object to the leftward drift. The Union of Concerned Scientists is well known to be left-of-center. Did they do similar surveys under Clinton and Carter?
Environmental groups target Schaffer Bob Schaffer will find himself a target of a major campaign attack by five national environmental groups determined to elect his opponent, Mark Udall, to the U.S. Senate this fall. The League of Conservation Voters, Clean Water Action, the Sierra Club, Environment America and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund today announced a coordinated campaign focusing on three U.S. Senate races, in Colorado, New Hampshire and New Mexico. Benefiting will be Udall, a Democrat and current U.S. representative viewed by activists as a candidate with strong green credentials for his support of alternative energy. Schaffer, a Republican and former member of Congress from Colorado, will be tied to big energy companies based on previous votes and his work for an oil company after leaving Congress. Campaign planners said it was the same coalition of green organizations that spent more than $1.7 million in 2006 to defeat Rep. Richard Pombo of California, a Republican who spent much of his congressional career battling environmentalists, and the Endangered Species Act in particular. Pombo's lifetime LCV score was 7 percent, the groups said. Environmental organizers said they would also focus on electing Democrats Tom Udall in New Mexico and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire to the Senate....
Harrison Ford's 'green' wax Harrison Ford had his chest waxed to highlight the problem of deforestation. The Hollywood star - who is the Vice Chairman of environmental group Conservation International - underwent the hair removal treatment in a bid to shock people into going 'green'. Afterwards, the 65-year-old star reportedly remarked he felt "naked". The 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' actor was joined during his treatment by Spice Girl Mel B, who was reporting for US TV show 'Access Hollywood'. Harrison - who has worked with Conservation International for 15 years - was handed the Global Environmental Citizen Award in 2002 by Harvard University in recognition of his conservation campaigning. Speaking at the time, he said: "Our exploitation of the Earth has reached alarming proportions in the short time we've come to dominate the environment."....
Brazil Oil Finds May End Reliance on Middle East Brazil's discoveries of what may be two of the world's three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere's reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said. Saudi Arabia's influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan's firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron's article as ``the shadow CIA.'' Brazil may be pumping ``several million'' barrels of crude daily by 2020, vaulting the nation into the ranks of the world's seven biggest producers, Zeihan said in a telephone interview. The U.S. Navy's presence in the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters would be reduced, leaving the region exposed to more conflict, he said....
Greenpeace founder now backs nuclear power Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore says there is no proof global warming is caused by humans, but it is likely enough that the world should turn to nuclear power - a concept tied closely to the underground nuclear testing his former environmental group formed to oppose. The chemistry of the atmosphere is changing, and there is a high-enough risk that "true believers" like Al Gore are right that world economies need to wean themselves off fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gases, he said. "It's like buying fire insurance," Moore said. "We all own fire insurance even though there is a low risk we are going to get into an accident." The only viable solution is to build hundreds of nuclear power plants over the next century, Moore told the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. There isn't enough potential for wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal or other renewable energy sources, he said....
Century-old farmstead holds history, happiness for family Maggie Smart McCormick used to say, "Children, even if you have to eat dirt and go naked, don't ever sell this land." They didn't. Today, the Smart-McCormick House in northern Williamson County stands solidly on the 4-foot-thick limestone foundation laid by Bryce Miller Smart in 1853. Surrounded by nearly 1,100 acres of rolling countryside and shaded by huge oak trees, it is still a home to the family, including its patriarch, Charles McCormick, 89, who heeded his great-grandmother's plea. "We raised everything here from cotton and oats to corn and hay," McCormick said last week as he sat in the living room of the old homestead near Florence. "Every morning, my brother and I got up at 6 a.m. and milked the cows. Then, we'd eat a breakfast of sausage, eggs and biscuits with honey and head off for a mile-and-a-half walk to school." Completed just a few years before the start of the Civil War, the home's 18-inch-thick limestone walls provided ample insulation. Doors and windows were placed to catch the slightest breeze from every angle. The oak plank floor is so thick that even today, it barely creaks. Although the interior walls were stuccoed years ago, the original reddish-brown wood molding still frames doorways and windows. A few pieces of furniture still survive, including the carved, 5-foot-tall "hall rack" near the front door, where men of the family hung their sweat-stained Stetsons....