Prince Charles: Eighteen months to stop climate change disaster The Prince of Wales has warned that the world faces a series of natural disasters within 18 months unless urgent action is taken to save the rainforests. In one of his most out-spoken interventions in the climate change debate, he said a £15 billion annual programme was required to halt deforestation or the world would have to live with the dire consequences. "We will end up seeing more drought and starvation on a grand scale. Weather patterns will become even more terrifying and there will be less and less rainfall," he said. "We are asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now and [the] urgency of them." The Prince said the rainforests, which provide the "air conditioning system for the entire planet", releasing water vapour and absorbing carbon, were being lost to poor farmers desperate to make a living. He said that every year, 20 million hectares of forest – equivalent to the area of England, Wales and Scotland – were destroyed and called for a "gigantic partnership" of governments, businesses and consumers to slow it down. "What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead," he said....
Hurricane study puts less blame on global warming Cyclone Nargis recently made international headlines for dealing death and destruction to Myanmar. Yet unlike the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, global warming received little blame for the intensification of Nargis. That's possibly because, in the nearly three years since New Orleans flooded, the science of hurricanes and climate has matured. A new scientific paper authored by prominent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists, published this weekend, reinforces the changing landscape. The paper, which simulated Atlantic hurricane activity during warming 21st century conditions, found 27 percent fewer tropical storms, and 18 percent fewer hurricanes. The strongest hurricanes, researchers found, had slightly higher wind speeds than before. "This does not support the idea that we've already seen a large positive trend in hurricane activity emerging from greenhouse gases," said lead author Tom Knutson, a Princeton, N.J.-based research meteorologist for NOAA. "In fact, it points in the other direction."....
A Cooling World Global warming has ceased. In 2005, it was .45 degrees centigrade above the 1961-1990 global average temperature. In 2006, it dropped to .42 centigrade, and in 2007, to .41 centigrade. That's one of many facts to be gleaned from an intelligent and calm book, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming, by Lord Nigel Lawson, a British politician and former journalist. It is not a book to be read on a warm afternoon after a heavy lunch. It will put you to sleep. That is to say it is not written in the style of melodramatic yellow journalism or TV sensationalism. It is written with an emphasis on facts and on logic. Richard S. Lindzen, Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says of the book: "This brief and elegant book treats the science of global warming seriously, but convincingly shows that whatever view one has of the science, almost all proposed approaches to the putative problem are intellectually deficient, economically absurd and harmful, and morally misdirected at best. Lawson's An Appeal to Reason is an appeal that must be heeded if one is to truly avoid great harm to man and the planet." Lawson sums up his book with this warning: "So the new religion of global warming, however appealing it may be to the politicians, is not as harmless as it may appear at first sight. Indeed the more one examines it the more it resembles a 'Da Vinci Code' of environmentalism. It is a great story and phenomenal best-seller. It contains a grain of truth – and a mountain of nonsense. And that nonsense could be very damaging indeed....
Boy attacked by large animal on Sandias A 5-year-old boy hiking with his family near Sandia Peak has survived an attack from an unidentified species of large animal, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish said Sunday. Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said the family was hiking near the popular Balsam Glade area on the east side of the Sandia Mountains on Saturday evening when the boy ran ahead of his parents. A sheriff's department report identified the boy as Jose Salazar Jr. of Albuqureque. The boy's parents saw the animal emerge from the brush and start dragging away their child, White said. The father then chased the animal, which let go of his son. White said the animal was a mountain lion, but Ross Morgan, a spokesman for Game and Fish, said dogs trained to track mountain lions picked up no scent in the area Saturday night or Sunday. "The dad described it as a short, stocky, dark brown animal," Morgan said. Neither White nor Morgan released the victim's name. The boy suffered puncture wounds to his head, neck and back. He was in serious condition at University of New Mexico Hospital on Saturday, White said....
'Everything you do has trade-offs' The Green Mountain Common Allotment is one of the largest unfenced ranges in the nation, and the Bureau of Land Management has been struggling for more than a decade to come up with a plan to manage the half-million-acre spread. The most recent plan, completed in 1999, almost immediately proved to be ineffective -- once the drought began in 2000 and never let up, according to Bruce Collins, regional spokesman for the BLM. In 2002, the agency conducted an assessment of the health of the rangeland on the allotment and found that several federal standards were not being met, particularly requirements for riparian areas -- the lush, green ribbons of vegetation that run alongside streams and waterways. Many of these riparian areas are ailing, and have been for years, BLM officials say. In an attempt to rejuvenate them, the agency is proposing to divide the allotment up into six smaller ones, and install nearly 100 miles, and about $1 million worth, of barbed-wire and electrical fences. In 2005, the BLM renewed two grazing permits, even though the health of the rangeland was failing. A coalition of four conservation groups -- the Western Watersheds Project, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, the National Wildlife Federation and the Wyoming Outdoor Council -- sued the agency. They argued that because the land was not meeting federal standards for health, the BLM couldn't renew permits without first completing a federally required environmental study. As part of a settlement, the BLM agreed to complete a new environmental analysis by the end of 2007, and issue a wholly new management plan by 2008, in order to ensure the land would meet rangeland health standards in the future....
Divide the range? Not far southeast of here is a vestige of the old American West -- one of the largest unfenced ranges in the United States. It's a place where 16 stockgrowers, mostly cattle ranchers, graze their animals -- and where thousands of local and nonlocal hunters, fishermen, hikers, backcountry horse riders and wildlife enthusiasts explore annually, but rarely run into one another, except by design. It's also a place where tens of thousands of people visit every year, from all over the world, to experience a few of the last remaining unspoiled sections of the Oregon, Mormon and California trails. But the health of the Green Mountain Common Allotment's rangeland is failing, and has been for years, officials say. The Green Mountain Common Allotment is over 522,000 acres of open range, 60 miles by 20 miles. If every man, woman and child in Wyoming gathered there, each would have more than an acre of his own to stand upon. Sections of the allotment have taken a beating from seven-plus years of drought, and more than a century of often harmful livestock grazing. Even though the BLM developed and finalized a management plan less than a decade ago, it has been forced to scrap it, and start over. But Jon Marvel, a representative of the Western Watersheds Project, said to break the allotment up into six sections would be a huge blow to Western and American heritage, as well as an enormous cost to taxpayers -- and it all would be done for the sole benefit of a few cattle ranchers. Fremont County Commissioner Doug Thompson, however, said the proposed action could actually restrict cattle ranchers on the allotment too much, and make it difficult for them to make a living there....
'There Goes the Neighborhood' -- again The prairie dog rises above its burrow on the high plains of southern Wyoming and takes a casual look around. Seconds later, the animal disappears in an explosion of blood and dirt. The self-described "shortgrass sniper" dressed in camouflage and orange chuckles for the camera and gets ready to fire again. With thousands of hits on YouTube, this popular prairie dog video by Colorado hunter Jim Bowman advises hunters to get ready for the upcoming prairie dog killing contest in southern Wyoming's Carbon County. The controversial, fifth annual, three-day "There Goes the Neighborhood" prairie dog killing contest is scheduled to begin May 31 on private lands around Medicine Bow, organizer Bowman said. Bowman, a machinist who lives in Kersey, Colo., said the event drew 38 participants last year, mostly from Colorado and Wyoming. He said this year's event will include the first-ever "world championship, long-range prairie dog sniper event" scheduled for June 1. "I think we're going to have a really good hunt this year," Bowman said in a phone interview. "And if we get some controversy out there, we're ready to handle that, too. We'll see what happens." Bowman said he formed an organization after last year's hunt, Prairie Dog Posse, to promote the event and to provide a "voice" for prairie dog shooters....
Mont. ranchers question water quality Tongue River rancher Mark Fix got his barley planted early this year and hooked up his circle pivot for irrigation. The barley needs moisture to get started, he said. But Fix was reluctant to irrigate with Tongue River water. "The way the water quality was, I was a little afraid to put it on," he said. Fix, who is past chairman of the Northern Plains Resource Council and chairman of its coal-bed methane task force, said there were significant increases in measures of salts in the river during March and April as recorded by a monitor in the Tongue at the Wyoming border near Decker. Fix believes that the water was exceeding Montana's federally approved nondegradation rules for indicators of salinity. And he suspects that discharges to tributaries of the Tongue in Wyoming could be the cause....
Farm Bill Seeds On-the-ground Conservation Benefits for Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat A four billion dollar increase in funding for programs that maintain and advance conservation of vital fish and wildlife habitat passed today as part of the 2007 Farm Bill Conference Report by an 81-15 vote in the Senate and a 318-106 vote in the House yesterday. Pay-as-you-go rules, a declining Congressional baseline budget and a promised Presidential veto have threatened the report’s passage before both chambers came to an agreement this week. The votes are sufficient to override a veto. Provisions in the bill renew the Wetland Reserve Program, an easement process for landowners to retire and restore drained wetlands; the Grassland Reserve Program to protect native grasslands; and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program to address priority fish and wildlife concerns within states such as early successional dependent species like the woodcock in Northeast states or critical salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest.The bill significantly ramps up the funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). The EQIP provision has specific language mentioning wildlife, while both programs contain language directing the Secretary of Agriculture to consider national, regional and state conservation priorities. The 2007 Farm Bill also introduces the new “Open Fields” Programs. Open Fields expands upon USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program to assist states with voluntary programs providing public access to private lands for fishing, hunting and other wildlife-related recreation. The Farm Bill further provides new federal tax deductions for landowners who make efforts to protect endangered species, as well as extending federal tax deductions to individuals who donate easements on their land for conservation purposes....
Discovery Of Disease ‘Wakeup Call’ For National Animal Identification System The discovery of malignant catarrhal fever in cattle shouldn’t be a reason for panic but is a “wakeup call” for better animal identification, according to LSU AgCenter veterinarian Dr. Christine Navarre. The National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, recently reported that three cases of the wildebeest strain of the disease were confirmed in cattle originating from Texas. “The cattle in Texas were exposed to captive wildebeests at the same ranch,” Navarre said, explaining that’s how they are believed to have contracted the disease – from the wildebeest carriers. “Then the 134 animals subsequently were sold and later traced to ranches in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi,” she added. “One heifer exposed to the wildebeests that was shipped to Louisiana has since died of the disease.” Navarre said the cases of malignant catarrhal fever are much less significant than other diseases, but she said they do serve as warnings about what needs to be done. “Although the outbreak of malignant catarrhal fever in this country has only minor repercussions for the cattle industry in the United States, it should serve as a wakeup call for the need for a national animal identification system,” she said. “Had this been a very contagious disease, like foot-and-mouth disease, it would have spread across the United States. “Without a fast, efficient animal tracking system, there would be no way to stop it,” she added....And how much federal money is LSU getting?
Cattle Brands: Rocking Chair The Rocking Chair Ranche Company, Limited, as it was designated by its British owners, encompassed northeastern Collingsworth County and extended into Wheeler County. The brand that gave it its name, however, was probably first used by Noah Ellis in South Texas during the early 1860s. It came to Collingsworth County in the fall of 1879, when John and Wiley Dickerson drove 2,000 cattle from the Llano River country to Dogwood Springs, on the South Fork of Elm Creek. By 1880 the Dickersons had established their headquarters at a site located south of a range of mesas subsequently named the Rocking Chair Mountains. In 1881 A. Conkle of Kansas City and John T. Lytleqv of Medina County acquired the brand; they registered it at Mobeetie on September 30. By November 1882 Conkle and Lytle had a herd of 14,745 head. The Rocking Chair Ranch was, however, without a legal home until February 17, 1883, when the partners bought 235 sections of former Houston and Great Northern Railroad land from the New York and Texas Land Company.qv On April 3 Conkle and Lytle sold their land, brand, cattle, and horses for $365,000 to Early W. Spencer and J. John Drew, who were seeking a suitable American cattle scheme for British investors....
An encounter with Butch Cassidy and his gang I once had a little brush with the famous outlaw, Butch Cassidy, and while I have no desire whatever to relive that scene again, I would change a thing or two about it if I could do so in safety and comfort. In the fall of 1877, I was in Castle Valley, Utah, in charge of my father's cattle interests. [He would have turned 17 the preceding June.] We had moved our stock there two years before from the more central valleys of the state which were now fast filling up with our fellow converts to the Mormon faith. Our family, however, remained at the home farm in Salt Lake Valley, 250 miles away. My sole hired help in the handling of our 2,000-odd cattle was a youth of about my own age named Tom Simpers. Alone we branded about 700 calves every spring, and moved the herd twice a year between the high summer range on the eastern slopes of the Wasatch mountains and the winter range in the depths of the desert bordering the Colorado River. It was a wild country into which few legitimate livestock outfits had yet penetrated, its stupendous gorges and colorful sandstone badlands being known only as the hiding place of outlaws -- the famed "Robbers Roost" of eastern Utah. I well remember Father's advice when handing over the weapons we thereafter carried constantly: "In case of trouble, be sure you shoot first." What an example of pioneer faith, this telling of 15-year-old boys to shoot first in contest with veteran badmen. Tom and I had just returned to our summer camp from Panguitch where we had gone for a horse, only to find that the animal had recently been stolen, along with a string of fine horses, by Butch Cassidy and his gang. We were now, on this particular frosty November morning, leaving camp again on a hurried two-weeks' trip to push what few straggling cows might still be hanging in the high country, down toward the winter range. As we rode along, we saw something that brought us to instant caution -- eyes open, mouths shut. There ahead of us were fresh tracks in the trail. Two horses, one smooth-shod in front, the other making a slim, dainty track, shod all around with "corked" shoes, had very recently crossed the trail into the timber and rocks above the trail....
It's All Trew: Canadian River was watery trap Almost every early day description, narrative and historical note written about the Canadian River uses the words "dangerous," "treacherous," "quicksand" and "death." Whether man, beast or wagon was involved, the river often took its toll. Old Tascosa was established because of the easy river crossing marked by centuries-old buffalo trails. Another well-known crossing was at Indian Creek, where gravel washed down from the creek during floods provided a firm bottom across the river. At various times and at certain locations along the river, men made a living guiding both wagons and early automobiles across the channel. In some areas, lead steers and river horses could be rented to help guide trail herds across the flooded waterway. Noted Panhandle historian Cleo Tom Terry wrote of Canadian River casualties. Iva Stovall, the Matador Ranch wagon boss, rode off into the river at flood stage and neither he nor his horse were ever seen again. Jay Taylor, a well-known Panhandle cattleman, once had an employee ride into the river and dropped from sight instantly. Mr. Taylor flew his airplane up and down the river for days afterward but never found any sign of the cowboy and mount. A pet phrase used by cowboys in describing the river was, "That old river will bog a saddle blanket at times." All riverside ranches kept a few river horses experienced in crossing quicksand....