Domestic Drilling OK, Just 'Not in My State,' Senators Say The United States should increase its domestic oil supply by opening up more drilling sites, several members of the Senate told Cybercast News Service Thursday, when surveyed on the issue at the U.S. Capitol. But some senators also said they are wary of allowing increased drilling in many locations - especially in their own states. "There may be places that make sense, I am not saying, 'Let's not drill anywhere,' " Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in response to the question. "But do I want to drill off the California coast? No. Do I want to drill in the Arctic in endangered areas? No." Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), strongly endorsed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) -- but not in his home state of Florida. "I just don't think we should do it in areas like the Florida Keys, which are environmentally very sensitive," Martinez told Cybercast News Service. "But I am very supportive of what we did a couple of years ago which opened eight million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for exploration," he added, referring to the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. The bill, which was signed into law by President Bush on Dec. 20, 2006, opened up a part of the Gulf of Mexico to oil-drilling leases. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who joined Feinstein in limited support, echoed her exact words, saying, "We can't drill our way out of this crisis." "I can't say categorically we shouldn't open any drilling," Levin said. "I mean, I oppose drilling obviously in the Great Lakes if that's what you're referring to. I would not endanger any fresh water and surely not the Great Lakes. In terms of drilling in the ocean it depends on where and how much protection there is of the shoreline."....
Caterers find eco-standards tough to chew Fried shrimp on a bed of jasmine rice and a side of mango salad, all served on a styrofoam plate. Bottled water to wash it all down. These trendy catering treats are unlikely to appear on the menu at parties sponsored by the Denver 2008 Host Committee during the Democratic National Convention this summer. Fried foods are forbidden at the committee's 22 or so events, as is liquid served in individual plastic containers. Plates must be reusable, like china, recyclable or compostable. The food should be local, organic or both. And caterers must provide foods in "at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white," garnishes not included, according to a Request for Proposals, or RFP, distributed last week. The shrimp-and-mango ensemble? All it's got is white, brown and orange, so it may not have the nutritional balance that generally comes from a multihued menu. Caterers praise the committee and the city for their green ambitions, but some say they're baffled by parts of the RFP. "I think it's a great idea for our community and our environment. The question is, how practical is it?" asks Nick Agro, the owner of Whirled Peas Catering in Commerce City. "We all want to source locally, but we're in Colorado. The growing season is short. It's dry here. And I question the feasibility of that." Agro's biggest worry is price. Using organic and local products hikes the costs....
A Texas Timeout on Biofuels The state of Texas is now in official opposition to the federal ethanol mandate. Governor Rick Perry has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency for a one-year reprieve, and the reason is simple and increasingly familiar: Washington's ethanol obsession is hurting the state. We all know that corn farmers everywhere love ethanol. Don't tell that to Texas cattle ranchers. Because of the mandate to add this biofuel to gasoline, ranchers are being forced into bidding wars with ethanol plants for the grains they feed their cattle. They don't appreciate being hammered on price because of a subsidy to corn growers. Thus, Governor Perry's petition. The Governor's goal is to win a ruling from the EPA that suspends half the federal requirement that nine billion gallons of this product be added this year to the nation's fuel supply. Last week the EPA opened a 30-day public comment period on the Texas waiver request, the first step in what could lead to granting his request. The most interesting thing revealed by this effort is that EPA holds the power to stand down from the ethanol fiasco. Congress gave EPA the authority to grant such waivers in the event the ethanol mandate had unforeseen consequences. Governor Perry argues that the mess in Texas qualifies. By his calculation, if the mandate helps to push the price of corn to $8 a bushel (it's at nearly $6 now, up from $2 in 2004), it will cost the Texas economy nearly $3.6 billion this year. He says the dramatic spike in food prices may be due to a complex set of reasons, but the ethanol mandate is something that public officials can alter. The EPA has until late July to make a decision on the Texas petition. Meanwhile, Congress merely throws more corn onto the ethanol bonfire. Under its 2005 mandates, Americans would be required to use 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2012. But in December that was increased by 1.5 billion gallons and advanced to this year. Congress's target for 2022 is 36 billion gallons. They'll be growing corn on the Washington mall....
Water users fight Pathfinder plan For Saratoga resident Joe Glode, opposing a request to change the use of 54,493 acre feet of water in Pathfinder Reservoir is a simple matter. "I like this area the way it is," he said. "I like the open space, the clean, the green, watching bald eagles swoop through the valley. I like all of that." Simply, he says, "nothing is more important than your water." Glode has rallied the support of members of two Upper North Platte Valley organizations which are leading the charge to oppose the change of use requested by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. In January, the Bureau of Reclamation filed a petition with the state Board of Control seeking a change in use for 53,493 acre feet of Pathfinder's water and asking that water be assigned a 1904 water right. The petition seeks a dedication of 33,493 acre feet for fish and wildlife purposes in Nebraska and asks that the other 20,000 acre feet be changed to municipal uses that would be made available to the state of Wyoming and leased to Wyoming cities and towns. BuRec officials say the change is needed to comply with an agreement involving Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado to provide water for endangered species in Nebraska. Wyoming has agreed to contribute $6 million for an extension of the Pathfinder Dam, an effort to compensate for storage capacity lost to sediment buildup. The program calls for some reservoir water to be sent downstream to preserve endangered species....
Public comment sought on changes to wolf removal policy State and federal officials are considering changes to a controversial rule that requires a Mexican gray wolf to be removed from the wild if it preys on livestock three times in a one-year period. Gov. Bill Richardson has called for the suspension of the rule, known as Standard Operation Procedure 13, to halt the removal of wolves, which numbered about 52 at the end of 2007. Removal can be either by capturing or killing the wolf. The proposed policy change attempts to address a scenario in which a rancher might intentionally lure a wolf to attack cattle and force its removal, said Terry Johnson, endangered species coordinator for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Johnson said he had "zero information" that such a scenario has occurred, but it's a possibility the program's policies have not addressed. The wolf recovery program's Adaptive Management Oversight Committee, which consists of six federal, state and tribal agencies, is seeking written comment on the proposed policy change until June 25. A decision on whether to adopt the change is expected at a July 31 meeting of agency directors. Under the proposal, a wolf would not be penalized for a livestock kill if federal investigators conclude that that "intentional attraction or repeated knowing attraction of wolves contributed or likely contributed to causing" the depredation....To find out about the alleged "wolf baiting" incident, see this post with pictures at Wolf Crossing.
Allard still uncertain on conservation area support Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., is withholding support of a bill to establish the Dominguez- Escalante National Conservation Area until some concerns about agriculture are allayed, his office said Friday. One issue still outstanding, said a rancher with lands inside the proposed conservation area, is whether the wilderness area inside it will stretch down to the Gunnison River. “One of the recommendations was to move the wilderness boundary on the rims” overlooking the river as it cuts along the base of the Uncompahgre Plateau, said Dick Miller of the Escalante Canyon Ranch. “And that didn’t happen.” Letting the wilderness reach down to the river could leave the ranch vulnerable to trespassing, Miller said. “There was a last-minute flurry to try to resolve some issues,” Miller said. “I don’t think it got done.” Miller said he was told the measure needed to be introduced before the Memorial Day holiday to have any chance of passage this year. “I hope there is still some flexibility to where issues can be resolved,” he said. U.S. Rep. John Salazar and Sen. Ken Salazar, both Democrats, on Thursday introduced a bill to establish the Dominguez-Escalante Canyons National Conservation Area and the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Area within it. Allard is “90 percent of the way there” to supporting the measure, his office said. Still outstanding are some local agriculture-related concerns, Allard’s office said, noting his Grand Junction office still is collecting comment on the proposal....
Ranchers' stamp left on valley "Neighbor" is a verb in ranch country. And for generations in the Wet Mountain Valley, it has meant mending fences and digging one another out of snow drifting down from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. But neighboring here now involves something new: complex land deals in which a pioneering mix of cowpunchers and environmentalists agree to forfeit development rights and share hits in property values as a way to fend off sprawl and preserve a long tradition of ranching in this valley. "Time was, if somebody said conservationist, I would have thought tree huggers that I'd never want to know," said rancher Randy Rusk, 58. "But now that we've preserved all the land from the highway to the mountains to the north horizon, well, that says something about us as neighbors." The valley has changed since Rusk grew up in an era when everyone here worked in ranching. Most families sold out to developers, who in turn built mini- ranches for city folks hankering to spend their weekends like J.R. Ewing. Soon came subdivisions of retirement estates and the galleries and cafes that inexorably followed. "We've got all these newcomers who are appalled by our dirt and smell," griped rancher Bill Donley, whose family started working cows in Wetmore in 1918. Custer County has 4,000 residents but only a dozen families still living off the land. A blow came in April when the city of Fountain bought the aptly named H20 Ranch for its water rights. Like many ranchers, Rusk first scoffed at the notion of a conservation easement, fearing interference from Big Brother....
Climate report adds more gloom A landscape plagued with dust storms and drought, rangeland that won't support cattle, streams too hot for trout, forests felled by beetles and fire - it's all part of the scenario painted in a new report on climate change by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The projections are not exactly new. Many of them have been reported by scientists and the media in the past five years. But they do offer a clearer picture of how the impacts of global climate change are not limited to Arctic ice and tropical islands and that climate change will have profound impacts on the mountains, streams and range familiar to Utahns and others in the West. "The trends are in place," said Fee Busby, a rangeland ecologist at Utah State University who has seen parts of the USDA's draft report. "The trends are going to continue." Attempts late last week to reach the USDA's Washington office were unsuccessful. But, in advisories about the report, the agency points out that its conclusions will be used to help set priorities for "research, observation and decision support needs." Part of a broader federal review of climate change, the 200-plus-page report focuses on the next 25 to 50 years. It had 38 authors, was reviewed by 14 scientists and uses more than 1,000 references, the agency said....
Bear killed after feeding on livestock near Reno Wildlife officials shot and killed a 540-pound black bear last week that had been killing livestock in Washoe Valley about 25 miles south of Reno. It was the first nuisance bear euthanized in the area this year. The 9-year-old bear, which had been feeding on sheep and goats, is one of the largest recorded in the area for its age, said Chris Healy, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. They typically weigh closer to 300 pounds. "That is a really big bear," Healy said Friday. Bears that wander into neighborhoods or campgrounds routinely are shot with dart guns, trapped and relocated. "We do all we can to try to keep them alive. But once they start killing livestock or breaking into homes, that is not an option," Healy said. "When they are killing livestock, that is one of the zero-tolerance things. If you move it, all you are doing is moving a problem to another area," he said. Ranchers in the south end of Washoe Valley and west of U.S. Highway 395 near Bellvue Road first started reporting attacks on livestock about two weeks ago. "It had killed some goats and today it killed three sheep," Healy said Friday....
Millican ranch owners fight to put house on their land When Janet and Keith Nash bought Evans Wells Ranch in the wide-open bowl of the Millican Valley 12 years ago, the cattle ranchers figured they were in it for the long haul. “I thought I’d stay here forever,” Janet Nash said Thursday, in the dining room of her home on the 2,200-acre ranch. Evans Wells Ranch lies about 25 miles southeast of Bend, in the sparsely populated area where buildings are few and far between. But the Nashes’ plans changed, they say, as increased off-road vehicle use, hunting and tighter rules for grazing on federal land make it harder to earn a living from their 250 cattle. They tried for two years to sell the ranch, without success. Now, the couple want to build a house on a 160-acre parcel, in hopes that a home on a smaller piece of land will attract a buyer. The Nashes are only asking for one house, but it is a request that, according to a county staff analysis, could open up historic farmland to hundreds of homes in the vast eastern end of Deschutes County. The change would also run contrary to policy established by a past County Commission in the 1990s, of minimizing new-home building on farmland in the remote Millican Valley....
Small Utah Town Takes On Federal Government Over Wetland Project Ranchers and residents from the small town of Myton, Utah are declaring a legal battle against the federal government in opposition to an environmental wetland project. The government wants to recreate wetlands in Duchense County that were destroyed by the Central Utah Water Project. The wetlands supply much needed water to the Wasatch Front. But residents say that the wetlands have mosquitoes, infected with the West Nile virus. They say the bugs have gone on to infect birds and horse. They believe that more marshes would only attract more mosquitoes. Friday, Myton residents drove to the Salt Lake City Federal Building to tell officials that they are not doing anything without a fight. “It’s not done until we finish suing them. If we have to,” said Myton Mayor, Kathleen Cooper. Cooper’s town is home to only 589 residents. But for most, the talk of the new project has brought many emotions. “It’s going to be taken. I cry when I leave my ranch. It’s terrible,” said Floyd Cox with tears in his eyes. Commission Executive Director, Michael Weland says he listened to the concerns but says he still supports the wetlands project. He says that fair market value will be given to anyone that loses land and that the project will actually reduce the risk of West Nile....
Corn Costs Signal Biggest Beef Surge Since 2003 as Herds Shrink Enjoy your next steak, because prices from Shanghai to San Francisco are only going up. The highest corn prices since at least the Civil War, based on Chicago Board of Trade data, mean U.S. feedlots are losing money on every animal they sell, discouraging production as rising global incomes increase meat consumption and a declining dollar spurs exports. Cattle may rise 13 percent by the end of the year on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Brazil's Bolsa de Mercadorias e Futuros, futures contracts show. Not since 1996, when corn reached what was then a record $5 a bushel, have cattle been this cheap relative to their primary source of feed. Cattle prices haven't kept pace with the grain used to feed the animals. Corn surged to a record $6.39 a bushel on May 9 from $3.6625 a year earlier. Feedlots lost money on animals sold for slaughter the past 11 months, including $139.56 a head in April, compared with a profit of $46.79 a year earlier, said Erica Rosa, an economist at the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Lakewood, Colorado. Losses were a record $169.80 per animal in March, and feedlots may not be profitable until after October, she said. As of May 1, feedlots held 11.1 million head, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier, the government said. Ranchers last year cut the number of young females they held by 3.5 percent to 5.67 million on Jan. 1, the second straight annual decline....
J.R. Simplot Dies at 99 Billionaire J.R. Simplot is dead at the age of 99. He passed away just before 11:00 a.m. at his home at the Grove Hotel in downtown Boise. According to the coroner's report he died of natural causes. J.R. Simplot himself, described how he'd like to be remembered during this 1992 interview filmed at his company. "Oh , hell I don't care what they say. I'm not a publicity hound. I think we made enough marks around here, there'll be somebody who says that guy was pretty smart , hung on and made a few things work," said Simplot. The business that supply's McDonald's with half it's french fries, even put together this tribute to their founders life. Simplot had simple roots as a farmer and rancher, who began his career at 14. He started out raising hogs and then eventually went into the potato business. By World War II, he accumulated dozens of warehouses and become the largest shipper of fresh potatoes in the country, even selling to the military. But the real turning point, came in the 1950's when Simplot took advantage of new technology to create frozen french fries, and went into business with McDonald's founder, Ray Crock over a simple handshake. After that, the savy business moves just kept coming....
Cowboy church ropes'em in “You have to earn the right to speak about Jesus,” said 70-year-old Dave Taff. One look at his lumpy and beaten hands, and it’s obvious to a cowboy that he’s earned some rights by his choice of trade. “I’m just a horseshoer and rancher. But horseshoing is how I paid for my ranch,” he said. But it wasn’t horseshoing that brought Taff to Dayton Days on Sunday. (Though he did bring his equipment and managed to fix the roping chute early that morning.) And it wasn’t team roping; he hasn’t entered a rodeo for 20 years — but he still ropes his own cattle. What brought him to these parts was the opportunity to give a sermon at the first Dayton Days cowboy church. “It all started with a lot of people asking us about having a cowboy church,” said Dayton Days committee member Phoebe Pettichord. So the committee called Taff to ask if he would lead the service, which he did for free on Sunday morning to 50 people in the grandstands. “I used to sit down with the New Testament with five or six guys and we would just share the Gospel,” Taff said, remembering almost 50 years ago when he first started holding Bible studies on Sunday before team-roping events. In the background the cows bellowed as the jockeys warmed up on prancing thoroughbreds. And behind them Dayton’s green hills were overshadowed with majestic colors of gray, white and blue from overcast skies....
Reunion draws Farrell family back to beginnings From far and near, members of the Farrell family are gathering to celebrate a pioneer legacy dating back to 1898 on the Grapevine Springs Ranch in the foothills of the Guadalupe Mountains. "The Farrell family is very dear to my heart. They left a mark on this land and all of us with a rich heritage," said Nancy Beard, third-generation Farrell. Beard's grandparents, Joel Fletcher Farrell and Addie Bodenhammer Farrell, came to the area in search of a high and dry climate. Joel came in 1898 to homestead and Addie and the four oldest children joined him around 1901. Together they established the Grapevine Springs Ranch, a 128-section spread located halfway between Guadalupe Peak and the Carlsbad Caverns. The ranch house was on eight sections located in New Mexico, while the remaining120 sections were in Texas. The Ussery's XT Ranch bordered Grapevine to the northwest, Tom Gray's ranch to the west and 9K Ranch to the southeast. The Witherspoon Ranch and the old Pecos Highway were to the east. The D Ranch bordered the ranch to the southwest and the Butterfield Stagecoach route crossed through the ranch's south pasture. Beard said her earliest memories are of the majestic ranch setting: the green fields, the orchard trees around the ranch house and the spring-fed creek running through the property. Beard remembers hearing stories of men rodeoing, smoking and spitting and the women washing, cooking and canning fruit. The abundant fruit in late spring brought welcome neighbors from far and near to share in the bounty and the women made a day of picking and canning fruit....
Little buckaroo Everywhere Darron Provost goes, they know him simply as “Cowboy.” It’s not as if his wardrobe leaves room for any other nicknames: wide-brimmed rancher hats for blocking out the merciless Wyoming sun, black and red boots with worn-out toes for navigating rugged terrain, and tan leather chaps for wiping off leftover pieces of Nutty Bar. Each morning, he suits up for a long day of bucking and roping, with just a bit of help from his mother. Darron, age 3, wants to ride bulls. “We wonder at the wisdom of encouraging him, but he loves it so much, and rodeo is such a family sport,” says his mother, Jamie Provost. Every member of the Provost clan rides or rodeos, but Darron has taken the family pastime to a new level of obsession. Besides the authentic cowboy getup (which includes a miniature pair of jingling spurs), Darron spends his mornings romping on stuffed rocking animals, roping any object his lariat can fit around, and belting out twangy rodeo anthems. He proudly takes his act on the road for public outings. In his wild imagination, the whole of Gillette has been enclosed in a giant bullring, making everything fair game for his cowboy hijinks. “This is so cute right now,” Jamie says. “Then when he hits high school, it will be terrifying.”....
On Butch Cassidy's Trail On the Parker homestead in the Sevier River Valley 200 miles south of Salt Lake City, Butch learned to be a cowboy first and, later, how to brand on other peoples' livestock. Apparently, he pulled only one big job in Utah, the 1897 Pleasant Valley Coal Co. payroll robbery at Castle Gate. Between heists, he and his Wild Bunch gang often hid on Utah's Colorado Plateau. St. George is the capital of Utah's Dixie, so named because Mormon church leaders dispatched pioneers such as Butch's father, Maximillian Parker, to settle and grow cotton around the time of the Civil War. Panguitch is where Butch's youngest sister, Lula Parker Betenson, spent her last years after writing "Butch Cassidy, My Brother," published in 1975. The book confounded Western scholars with its assertion that Butch arrived at the Parker home in nearby Circleville in 1925 driving a new black Ford, unscathed by the bullets of Federales, who supposedly had killed him and Sundance. Lula was a toddler when her big brother left home, but in the 1930s she believed claims that William T. Phillips of Spokane, Wash., was Butch. Later, she changed her mind, saying she knew where the real Butch was buried but planned to take the secret to her grave. She died in 1980....