Rancher sues in bison slaughter The owner of 32 bison killed by gunmen in March has sued a Texas businessman and his Denver lawyer, claiming they hired the hunters who felled the animals. Bringing the suit in Park County District Court against Austin, Texas, businessman Jeff Hawn and his Denver lawyer, Stephen Csajaghy, is Monte Downare, a longtime Colorado rancher and well-known figure in Park County. The bison were killed over hundreds of acres of land in an area roughly 15 miles southeast of Hartsel. The killings triggered an extensive investigation by five state and local agencies. In a lawsuit filed just days before the bison were shot, Hawn, who identified himself as 50 percent shareholder and manager of Wateredge Properties, claimed that Downare's bison had repeatedly broken through fences erected to keep them off Wateredge property, damaging or destroying fences in 50 places. But in the counterclaim against Hawn and Csajaghy, Downare alleged that Csajaghy, Hawn and Wateredge conspired to "hire hunters to kill the buffalo" owned by the Downare family....
Gov. Bill Ritter signs river-protection bill into law Gov. Bill Ritter signed a law Monday designed to protect water-rights holders who donate water to help save fish. House Bill 1280 assures farmers and ranchers that they won't lose their water rights if they loan or lease water to the state's in-stream flow program. Courts calculate water rights based on historic use, and owners of water rights have worried that if they keep water in the river to protect fish, judges will declare they had abandoned their right. "Just think how backward that is," said Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins, the bill's sponsor. The bill is part of a push by the Ritter administration to strengthen the state's 35-year-old in-stream flow program....
NM governor calls for surface water protection More than 5,300 miles of New Mexico's rivers and streams would gain special protection under the federal Clean Water Act as "outstanding waters" as part of a precedent-setting proposal being pushed by Gov. Bill Richardson. The plan marks the first time New Mexico has embarked on a such a broad effort to protect headwaters on national forest land and in roadless areas from degradation under the state's water quality standards and the Clean Water Act, officials said. The governor's office, environment officials and other groups have been talking about seeking such a statewide designation for some time, but Richardson decided to make the announcement Tuesday in honor of Earth Day. Rivers and streams eligible for designation as Outstanding National Resource Waters include those that are part of a national or state park, wildlife refuge or wilderness area, or those that are of high quality and haven't been significantly modified by human activities. It will be up to New Mexico's Surface Water Quality Bureau to draft a proposal seeking the designation. The bureau would hold a series of public meetings to gather comment and then submit a final proposal to the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission for approval. Leavitt said the designation would provide an extra level of review for any activities that could impact the water quality of New Mexico's headwaters, including those that make up the Gila, Pecos and Santa Fe rivers....
Lincoln forest to close May 1 Lincoln National Forest officials plan to close most of the forest to the public May 1 as fire danger increases. "Extremely dry conditions have warranted closure of the entire Lincoln National Forest," said the acting forest supervisor, Jacqueline Buchanan. While campfire and smoking restrictions have been effective in keeping the number of fires down, the Lincoln cannot afford the risk of human-caused fires, she said. "We are not only concerned about the risk to communities and natural resources, we are concerned about potential difficulties evacuating recreationists from remote areas should a wildfire start," Buchanan said. The closures will be lifted when the southern New Mexico forest gets enough rain, officials said. But they also said a significant amount of moisture will be required to reduce the extreme fire danger....
Past six months driest on record in thirsty N.D. The past six months have been the driest on record in North Dakota, with the parched western part of the state suffering the most, the state climatologist says. Through Monday, the statewide average precipitation for the past 180 days was only 1.59 inches, or 38 percent of normal, and the driest since record keeping began 113 years ago, said Adnan Akyuz, the state climatologist. It can’t get much worse on the Leland cattle ranch, near Beach in western North Dakota. “Our grass is barely greening,” said Luella Leland. “There is not enough ground moisture to keep it green.” Leland said she and her family are praying for rain. Fifty-five percent of the state is listed as having extreme drought, and 22 percent is in the severe drought category, Akyuz said....
Gov: Forest deal ‘suspect’ Forest Service officials have allowed energy developers undo influence during the development of an environmental study to determine whether to allow oil and gas drilling on 44,700 acres in the Wyoming Range, according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal. Freudenthal called a memorandum of understanding between Stanley Energy, Inc. and the Bridger-Teton National Forest “extremely suspect” in an April 21 letter to Harv Forsgren, regional forester for the Forest Service Intermountain Region. Freudenthal’s letter comes after Bureau of Land Management officials “expressed concern” about the arrangement to Intermountain Region officials last week, according to Forest Service officials. The controversy comes before an April 28 deadline for the public to send comments on the scoping portion of the draft supplemental environmental impact statement. The agreement in question allows Stanley officials to respond to public comments, keeps correspondence between the national forest and Stanley private, forces the forest to consider alternatives proposed by Stanley, and in return the company will pay for an independent contractor to complete the supplemental environmental impact statement that will decide if the leases can be developed....
A new Latino conservation group We have seen plenty of conflicts between the green and the brown here in New Mexico. Enviro groups have been at odds with local Indo-Hispano communities over spotted owls and forestry policies, public land grazing, instream flow proposals, land grants, wilderness and immigration policy. It’s a problem in a state with a 44% “Hispanic or Latino” population, much of which can trace its roots back 400 years or more. It’s not that we’re anti-environment – recent surveys show that New Mexico Hispanos are more concerned about the environment and more willing to spend public money on environmental problems than their white neighbors – but hard-ball, confrontational environmental tactics, with no heart for culture and history and justice, have made locals very anti-environmentalist. A group of Latinos want to make environmentalism more relevant and more accessible to that constituency through a new organization called the Latino Sustainability Institute. The group’s mission includes promoting conservation policies and social equity, building relationships between conservation groups and Latino organizations, supporting Latino land and water based organizations and preserving sustainable lifeways and cultural landscapes across New Mexico....
Billboard praises 12 'greenest' musicians In celebration of Earth Day yesterday, Billboard counted down the greenest musicians of the last 12 months. The artists who made the cut have been taking action to support environmental causes - from carbon offsets to donations - and urging their fans to do the same...2. Willie Nelson: Willie Nelson's BioWillie biodiesel fuel will add a key location when Willie's Place at Carl's Corner, Texas, opens this summer. Billed as the biggest green truck stop in the United States, the facility will include 13 islands and 26 pumps. Fuel sold there will have some percentage of biofuel, ranging from 5 percent to 85 percent....Can you imagine The Redheaded Stranger being a greenie? "Don't boss him, don't cross him" or he'll beat you to death with an organic tomato vine.
Will Liberty Go Extinct? Today marks the 38th anniversary of Earth Day, and left-leaning environmentalist activists have reason to celebrate. Over the course of nearly four decades, environmental regulation has grown by leaps and bounds. Research conducted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute shows that environmental lawmaking has proven to be the leading area of government lawmaking activity for decades. For those who value liberty and free enterprise, these trends should be disturbing. Surely, we all want a healthy environment, but environmental regulation has become synonymous with “command-and-control” regulation. While truly free market solutions exist that could work better than command-and-control, these approaches have never seriously been on the table in Washington, D.C. Market-like policies, such as cap-and-trade regulatory systems, earn the support of some greens. These may represent a more flexible to way to regulate, but they are also used to expand government control over economic activity. In the global-warming area, cap-and-trade could become part of a massive new regulation and wealth redistribution scheme covering economic activity worldwide. An analysis of all the public laws passed between 1970 and 2005 shows environmental policymaking to be the leading area of lawmaking (excluding symbolic legislation). Further analysis shows that the overwhelming majority of these laws had significant impacts (and many quite major) and an overwhelming majority advance government controls on the economy, land use, and individuals....
Ethanol's Failed Promise The willingness to try, fail and try again is the essence of scientific progress. The same sometimes holds true for public policy. It is in this spirit that today, Earth Day, we call upon Congress to revisit recently enacted federal mandates requiring the diversion of foodstuffs for production of biofuels. These "food-to-fuel" mandates were meant to move America toward energy independence and mitigate global climate change. But the evidence irrefutably demonstrates that this policy is not delivering on either goal. In fact, it is causing environmental harm and contributing to a growing global food crisis. Food-to-fuel mandates were created for the right reasons. The hope of using American-grown crops to fuel our cars seemed like a win-win-win scenario: Our farmers would enjoy the benefit of crop-price stability. Our national security would be enhanced by having a new domestic energy source. Our environment would be protected by a cleaner fuel. But the likelihood of these outcomes was never seriously tested, and new evidence has shown that the justifications for these mandates were inaccurate. It is now abundantly clear that food-to-fuel mandates are leading to increased environmental damage. First, producing ethanol requires huge amounts of energy -- most of which comes from coal. Second, the production process creates a number of hazardous byproducts, and some production facilities are reportedly dumping these in local water sources. Third, food-to-fuel mandates are helping drive up the price of agricultural staples, leading to significant changes in land use with major environmental harm....
Conservationists sue for lynx protection in New Mexico A coalition of conservation and animal protection groups on Monday sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to force it to extend federal protection to Canada lynx in New Mexico. The federal government lists the elusive, furry cats as threatened in 14 states — but not in New Mexico. "We've thought the Fish and Wildlife Service's position on lynx in New Mexico is very odd," said Nicole Rosmarino of WildEarth Guardians, one of the groups that sued. "Once lynx cross from Colorado into New Mexico — which they have been doing — they're suddenly not protected anymore. We don't think that makes any sense." The Colorado Division of Wildlife, which has released more than 200 lynx in Colorado since 1999, tracked about 60 of the animals into New Mexico's Taos, Rio Arriba and San Juan counties between 1999 and 2006, the lawsuit said. Fish and Wildlife officials have not seen the lawsuit and cannot comment on ongoing litigation, said Diane Katzenberger, a spokeswoman for Fish and Wildlife in Denver. Last August, conservation groups petitioned for protection for the cats, asking the agency to make a decision on the species' status in New Mexico. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., complains that Fish and Wildlife failed to make a finding on the petition within 90 days as required by the Endangered Species Act. The law gives the agency 90 days to determine whether the petition provides sufficient information for the agency to then determine whether a listing may be warranted....
Woman finds 8-foot alligator in her Florida kitchen And some people get jittery about mice in the kitchen. Authorities say 69-year-old central Florida woman found an 8-foot long alligator prowling in her kitchen late Monday night. Sandra Frosti says the gator must have pushed through the back porch screen door and then went inside through an open sliding glass door at her home in Oldsmar, just north of Tampa. It then apparently strolled through the living room, down a hall and into the kitchen. A trapper with Animal Capture of Florida removed the alligator, which was cut by a plate that was knocked to the ground during the chaos. But no one inside the house was injured.
New Ranger statue is first of many, philanthropist says Outside the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, a larger-than-life lawman reins in his spooked horse and glares off to his right, ready to confront some threat, perhaps a rattlesnake or an armed desperado. The imagined scene is cast in bronze for the ages in a Don Hunt statue that was dedicated Tuesday. A gift by local philanthropists Betsy and Clifton Robinson, “The Texas Ranger” is just the first in a series of sculptures that will grace the Brazos River corridor within a few years. At Tuesday’s unveiling ceremony, Clifton Robinson announced that the vision for the $2 million-plus public art project, called “Branding the Brazos,” is expanding. The next set of sculptures will depict a Chisholm Trail cattle drive near the Waco Suspension Bridge, with a trail boss and at least one longhorn. Set to be unveiled this fall, they are being fashioned by Glen Rose artist Robert Summers. A vaquero and a black cowboy will be added in the next year or two along with more longhorns. The envisioned longhorn herd has grown from nine to 25, Robinson said. Doreen Ravenscroft, a Waco Arts Festival organizer involved in the project, said the Chisholm Trail sculptures will be a reminder of Waco’s history....