The First Man to Legally Shoot a Wolf Tells His Story Tonight for the first time, the rancher who legally shot the first wolf in Idaho is talking about what exactly happened. At the beginning of the month, an Ashton man shot and killed two wolves just west of town after they threatened his horse just yards from his home. This week fish and game officers ruled Bruen Cordingly was justified in killing the animals. Cordingly says he didn't even think about it, when he saw wolves near his home and his livestock he went after them. And although Fish and Game's investigation into the incident shows Cordingly was justified in the shooting, he believes officers tried to make an example out of him. "This is my livelihood these horses and stuff and my kids. I don't want to have to be worried about my kids going outside. I don't want to have to be worried about my horses getting killed in the middle of the night," Cordingly said. When he walks around his land, he can't help but point out where the wolves came in. The night of April first, he says wolves came up to his cabin got into the dog dish, pulled out blankets and then circled the property. The melting snow didn't hold the evidence very long, but he believes a pack was circling his property all night....
Researchers Fear Southern Fence Will Endanger Species Further The debate over the fence the United States is building along its southern border has focused largely on the project's costs, feasibility and how well it will curb illegal immigration. But one of its most lasting impacts may well be on the animals and vegetation that make this politically fraught landscape their home. Some wildlife researchers have grown so concerned about the consequences of bisecting hundreds of miles of rugged habitat that they have talked of engaging in civil disobedience to block the fence's construction. The scientists cite examples such as the 70 remaining Sonoran pronghorns in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, deerlike animals that are the fastest land mammals in North America. They are the only remaining population on U.S. soil, and the five surveillance towers that the administration plans to build in the area will be in the middle of the pronghorns' range, producing noise and human activity that would disturb the sensitive species. On April 4, Benjamin Tuggle, a regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told customs and border protection officials that an interagency team of scientists concluded last month that the construction would inhibit breeding and, "over time, may ultimately lead to the eventual extinction of the species." The Sonoran pronghorns are not alone: Rare species such as jaguars, ocelots and long-nose bats are also likely to face problems with the new barriers, scientists said....
It's up to the voters State trust-land reform's wobbly legs have a few more steps to travel. With hopes of a legislative compromise fading faster than wildflowers in May, the advocates of preserving Arizona's most pristine landscapes have concluded an initiative is the only way to achieve their goal. They're preparing to collect 300,000 signatures to put the issue before voters in November. They're looking at something less ambitious than Proposition 106, which narrowly failed two years ago, but more generous than the compromise bogged down in the Legislature. Let's hope they learned from past mistakes. The first look is promising. This initiative is more narrowly tailored than the past attempt. About 570,000 acres, including 5,000 acres in Scottsdale, would be set aside for immediate conservation. That's 120,000 fewer acres than in the 2006 initiative, but the land is spread into more places, including rapidly developing Pinal County, which should widen the initiative's appeal. The proposal responds to critics in significant ways. Land set aside for conservation would remain in the state's hands rather than being given to cities or counties. Existing grazing leases would be honored, a provision that acknowledges the role ranchers played in defeating the previous effort. As in the legislative compromise, communities would be able to buy land beyond the 570,000 acres at appraised value, without having to compete at auction against developers. The State Land Department would be able to keep a portion of auction proceeds to improve its planning and management of land....
Tricky pick: Our 'greenest' president was . . . Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the true green giant of American presidents: Richard Nixon. For the many Nixon haters out there, this is a most inconvenient truth. His accomplishments include the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. He started the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon rewrote the federal government's role in protecting natural resources. He created the regulatory framework now in place, the one that subsequent Republican presidents have tried so hard to dismantle. His administration organized the first worldwide effort to crack down on international trade in endangered species. That effort now includes 172 nations and protects 30,000 species, ranging from orchids to whales. Under Nixon, DDT was banned and eagles flourished. Under Nixon, the wholesale poisoning of coyotes and other predators by Western ranchers was stopped. Nixon brought some of the nation's top environmentalists into his administration. There was Nat Reed, the South Florida Everglades activist, named as assistant secretary of the Department of Interior. There was Russell Train, Nixon's second EPA secretary, who went on to head the World Wildlife Fund. There was Lee Talbot, the Council of Environmental Quality's chief scientist, who wrote much of the original Endangered Species Act. In a 1998 interview, Talbot said, "No president since or before, except maybe Teddy Roosevelt, has been willing to put as much political muscle into the environment."....
Bolivia seeks charges against US rancher Bolivia's government is seeking to charge an American rancher and his son — a former Mr. Bolivia pageant winner — for their alleged role in violent protests against President Evo Morales' land redistribution plan. Ronald Larsen, who has extensive land holdings in Bolivia, and his son Duston are named in a criminal complaint for "sedition, robbery, and other crimes." The complaint was announced on Friday by Deputy Minister of Land Alejandro Almaraz. Ronald Larsen, of Montana, is accused of firing on Almaraz's vehicle and holding the minister hostage as he tried to carry out a government inspection of Larsen's ranch in southern Bolivia on February 29. The Larsens are also accused of leading a protest last week in the nearby town of Cuevo that left some 40 people injured. Prosecutors will now decide whether to file charges against the pair. Neither could be immediately be reached for comment, and it was unclear if they had hired a lawyer. But Larsen told his side of the story to the La Paz daily La Razon last week. "He was drunk and he showed up at three in the morning at my ranch. I didn't know who he was," Larsen said of Almaraz, according to the newspaper. "I didn't want this guy making any trouble, so I shut him up with a shot at one of his tires. That's the story."....
Union head claims USDA tried to intimidate employees The head of the union that represents 6,000 federal food inspectors told a congressional committee Thursday that the Agriculture Department tried to intimidate him and other employees who reported violations of regulations, an allegation denied by the agency. Union chief Stan Painter said that following a mad cow disease scare in 2003, he told superiors that new food safety regulations for slaughtered cattle were not being uniformly enforced. Painter said he was told to drop the matter, and when he didn't, was grilled by department officials and then placed on disciplinary investigative status. Painter said he was eventually exonerated, but the incident "has caused a chilling effect on others within my bargaining unit to come forward and stand up when agency management is wrong." He said that supervisors tell workers to "let the system work" rather than cite slaughterhouses for violations. Painter made the allegations at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform domestic policy subcommittee, which was looking into slaughterhouse practices following humane violations at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., which led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history....
'Tick Riders' guard US from deadly pest, one cow at a time Fred Garza has been patrolling a piece of the Rio Grande for 16 years, usually riding solo on horseback, sometimes venturing to areas where his radio and cell phone have limited range. But Garza's not looking for drug smugglers, human traffickers or illegal immigrants. He's looking for stray livestock that might be carrying a tick, a tiny pest with a deadly disease, into the United States. "If it doesn't have hooves, it's not our concern," Garza said. Garza is a veteran of the 61-person U.S. Department of Agriculture "Tick Rider" force, a group that keeps watch over a 700-mile buffer zone along the Rio Grande from Brownsville to Del Rio. They inspect both foreign strays and native ranch animals for the fever tick, a parasite eradicated from the U.S. 65 years ago that can transmit disease to cattle and could spread to the entire southeastern U.S. if not controlled. Lately, the tick has managed to migrate beyond the 862-square mile permanent quarantine zone, an area from which cattle can't be removed unless they are free of ticks. The spread has forced the formation of three temporary quarantine zones totaling more than 1,100-square miles. Bob Hillman, state veterinarian and executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission, said officials are concerned that the fever ticks may spread to other parts of the country....
City dogs discovering sheep, cattle, hidden talent Selkie, a border collie recovering from a tennis ball addiction, gets her cue. She cuts a wide curve around the field, hunches low and creeps in. Bleats of protest are useless. The sheep stiffen and get moving. It's a good day to be a dog. Selkie isn't really a stock dog but she plays one at Drummond Ranch, which isn't really a livestock ranch, but a 40-acre haven an hour outside Los Angeles. There, city dogs escape their leash-and-lounge existence and learn to get in touch with their inner herder. The ranch is part of a trend that mixes training techniques, a back-to-basics ethos and a hint of dog (and human) therapy. "It really, really seems to center the dog and give the dog a sense of confidence and fulfillment, a good assertiveness, a good energy," said ranch owner Janna Duncan, who has taught dozens of canines and their owners the art of moving livestock. "It's almost as if the dog needs a job. And when they discover, 'This is what my job is supposed to be,' then everything falls into place." The American Kennel Club says new herding clubs are popping up across the country, although it does not track exact numbers. Nearly 200 clubs held herding trials last year. More than 10,000 dogs competed, a roughly 10 percent increase over 2006....
Home on the Range: Laurie Wagner Buyer’s “Spring’s Edge” Spring’s Edge: A Ranch Wife’s Chronicles University of New Mexico Press Here’s a job description for you. In Laurie Wagner Buyer‘s new memoir, Spring’s Edge, she describes her occupation in this way: “There are no days off, not even weekends. No sick leave. No benefits. No vacations. No retirement plan. No perks. No health insurance. No camaraderie of fellow workers…If you’re lucky, you manage to hang on to the home place and pass it on to your children.” Any takers? If so, head to the nearest mountain ranch and sign on for calving season. In 1997, Laurie Wagner Buyer was married to the rancher Mick Buyer and living and working on a six-hundred-acre cattle ranch near Fairplay, Colorado. Buyer was already a successful regional poet (she’s since gone on to win the 2007 Spur Award for Best Poetry), and in February of that year, she began to keep a journal of her mundane daily activities. Except that the activities didn’t turn out to be so mundane: the Buyers were beset by a winter that wouldn’t quit, financial troubles, family health difficulties, developers buying up the nearby land, and the fraying of their own strained relationship. As Spring’s Edge begins, Mick has just sold his main cattle herd to a neighbor to pay for his expenses, such as ever climbing feed bills and property taxes. All their hopes for keeping the ranch rest in the remaining pregnant heifers, which they must shepherd through labor and the rest of a hard winter to have a viable herd that will allow them to continue to make a living. This urgency infuses Buyer’s account with tension, and her detailed descriptions of her midwifery on the cows bring the reader right into the quickly disappearing world of independent Western ranchers....