Hikers packing concealed heat East Brainerd resident Monica Dobbs hikes 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail every winter with friends and craves the quiet days without cell phones, television and work. Hikers who want to leave their daily lives behind sleep next to strangers in shelters, and many trade their real names for trail names. They sometimes can walk two or three days to find a town or a phone. While leaving society behind is refreshing, being alone in the woods also can be terrifying. “It’s an invitation for a disaster,” said Ms. Dobbs, a 28-year-old hairdresser, who plans to take a 9 mm handgun with her on her next trek. “I think you should be allowed to legally carry a weapon for defense purposes. If someone comes after me, what am I going to do?” she said. Guns have been restricted from some national parks for more than 100 years, except for hunting areas. However, there is a growing interest in easing the restrictions. U.S. Department of the Interior officials have proposed bringing federal gun restrictions in line with state laws. If approved, the change would allow hikers to carry loaded concealed weapons in some national parks. Though crime in America’s national parks has decreased in the last 10 years, 384 incidents including killings, rapes, robberies, kidnappings and aggravated assaults occurred in national parks in 2006, according to the National Park Service....
Senate committee approves buyout of cattle ranchers A Senate committee Wednesday unanimously approved a delicate agreement that would close 24,000 acres in Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument to grazing while paying ranchers to keep their cattle off the land. The action by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee moves closer to reality a novel proposal that has been years in the making. The bill, which was sponsored by Oregon Sens. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden, would provide federal protection to the property. In return, ranchers would be paid for releasing their grazing rights by a fund established by environmental and private groups. But not everyone was happy with the plan. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he would introduce legislation in the next week to add federal payments to ranchers who give up their grazing rights. The original agreement called for federal money, but it was removed during Senate consideration. Walden called it a "bait and switch" that shortchanges ranchers who are walking away from a valuable asset. "In Washington, D.C., I've learned that you better get it in writing," Walden said in a statement less than an hour after the deal was approved in the Senate. "I've found out the hard way that if you don't have a guarantee in writing, it likely won't happen. By including a guarantee for full compensation, we will ensure that the wilderness and the buyouts reach the finish line at the same time...Rancher Bob Miller, who helped negotiate the settlement on behalf of himself and four others, said he was pleased with the Smith-Wyden bill even though it offered far less money than ranchers originally sought. Miller said the Senate bill cut the payout to ranchers by roughly 60 percent from the amount they originally sought. The federal payment was deleted at the insistence of committee chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who worried about setting a precedent if federal money was used. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., also objected, arguing that using federal money to buy grazing rights could lead to a wholesale buyback that would seal federal lands from grazing....
Senate panel approves Idaho wilderness bill A bill to create a wilderness in southwest Idaho's Owyhee canyonlands has cleared a Senate committee. The bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, would create an 807-square-mile wilderness. It also would open 300 square miles of previously off-limit areas to motorized recreation, livestock grazing and other activities. The measure would provide ranchers with cash and federal land in exchange for giving up private land and grazing rights on some public land, and would offer federal protection to 316 miles of wild and scenic rivers in Owyhee County. Crapo says he will continue to seek the money needed to carry out the required agreements if the measure becomes law.
Public to comment on prairie dogs The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has begun accepting public comment on whether the white-tailed prairie dog, a squirrel-like rodent found in four states, should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The agency is reconsidering its denial of that protection and will accept comment until July 7, according to a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register. Last year, the agency announced it was reconsidering its decision after an investigation found a former Interior Department administrator had inappropriately influenced the denial. The Interior Department oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service. When the agency did not specify a timeline for reconsideration, conservation groups sued. In settling the lawsuit in February, the agency agreed to begin a status review this spring and make a decision by mid-2010. The white-tailed prairie dog is found in Wyoming, where the numbers are greatest, as well as in Colorado, Utah and a small slice of Montana....
Prairie dogs face new threat: bureaucrats Any society that can afford to fret about the fate of nature’s hairy answer to the cockroach — the prairie dog — has to be considered a mite confused. Not surprisingly, that society would be this one. Yes, the federal government has agreed to consider the possibility that the white-tailed prairie dog might be an endangered species. That would be the same prairie dog that you see haunched up in the desert, generally surrounded by fleas. Not being particularly bright, they also tend to become decorations on Desert Duelers and naturalistic murals on Michelins and Goodyears as they dash onto busy roadways to chomp down on the remains of their erstwhile townies. More frequently, they, or what’s left of them, end up as chow for hawks, eagles, coyotes, cougars, bobcats and so on. And, horror of horrors, prairie dogs also tend to spend some of their last moments in the cross hairs of telescopic sights of modern rifles wielded by human sharpshooters. The last activity, of course, is considered unacceptable by one subset of humanity that simply cannot stand the thought of another subset wandering unregulated about the public lands. Which brings us to the point at which we are now considering spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars, on highly trained technocrats who will devote untold hours to counting prairie dogs in the sagebrush-, piñon- and juniper-studded high country of the Rocky Mountain West....
U.S. now clueless about sea lion deaths at dam Backing away from earlier suggestions that six sea lions were brazenly gunned down at Bonneville Dam over the weekend, federal fisheries officials said on Wednesday they now do not know how the animals died. They said they initially thought, based on puncture wounds on the neck of one animal and traces of blood, that the sea lions were illegally shot while trapped inside floating cages set up by state officials. Initial reports Sunday that the animals were shot provoked outrage, atop already rising controversy over the sea lions preying on protected salmon. State officials halted all sea lion capture efforts until next year. Examinations of the carcasses found no gunshot wounds and determined that the neck wounds were probably caused by bites from another sea lion. Officials said they do not know that foul play was involved. The gates on the floating cage platforms are typically left open, but state officials acknowledged Wednesday that in a few past instances the gates have accidentally closed on their own....
How many wolves? Lawsuit says original target was too small by sevenfold With more than 1,500 wolves now roaming the Northern Rockies, there are five times the original goal stated in the federal government's 1994 wolf recovery plan. But a coalition of conservation and animal rights groups is trying to convince a federal judge that 1,500 wolves is not enough -- that the animals should be put back on the federal endangered species list until the population grows by at least another 33 percent, and state management plans are put in place to maintain that level. This is one of the central arguments put forth by the coalition of 12 conservation and animal rights organizations in a lawsuit filed April 28 in U.S. District Court in Montana. The coalition is attempting to overturn the federal government's decision to delist wolves in the Northern Rockies, and is seeking a court injunction to halt state management of wolves while the case is pending. Sylvia Fallon, a geneticist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said scientific knowledge has grown significantly in the past 20 years. Geneticists now understand that there should be 2,000 to 5,000 wolves in the Northern Rockies before the federal government can, in good faith, call the species "recovered" here. Also, she said, it appears that the three main subgroups of wolves in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana have remained genetically isolated from one another, and interbreeding between the groups will be essential to long-term viability....
Piñon move arouses new suspicions The U.S. Army announced Wednesday that it plans to study the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of stationing a new infantry brigade combat team at Fort Carson. But critics viewed the announcement as a conflicting Pentagon doctrine to justify expanding the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southern Colorado. "I think the average citizen would like a straight answer without the Pentagon bringing stealth technology into play," said Jim Herrell, board member of the expansion opposition group Not 1 More Acre. The Notice of Intent to begin an environmental-impact statement process comes two weeks after the opposition group sued the U.S. Army for failing to mention its plans to expand acreage of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in a previous environmental- impact statement. The Army first proposed to expand the 368-square-mile site to nearly 1,000 square miles in 2006. In December, Congress passed a bill prohibiting the Army from spending any money on acquiring acreage for the site in fiscal year 2008. Joe Brettell, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, said the Army is using leftover funds from fiscal year 2007 for actions at Fort Carson and the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site related to its "Grow the Forces" agenda. "They claim all reports made come from funds from fiscal year 2007," Brettell said. "Technically, the Army is not in violation of the moratorium."....
More than $11.5M awarded to Florida residents in citrus case Florida owes more than $11.5 million to thousands of Broward County homeowners whose citrus trees were chopped down during a failed effort to control a harmful disease, a jury ruled. The amount was far less than the plaintiffs had sought, leading attorneys for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to declare partial victory. Jurors reached the verdict Tuesday in the class-action lawsuit after deliberating for almost two days. If the state appeals, it could be months before the more than 58,000 Broward County residents involved in the case are paid. The homeowners filed the lawsuit after the state cut down about 133,700 citrus trees in Florida's second-most populous county as it tried to stop the spread of canker, then offered payments ranging from $55 and $100 for each tree - enough for small replacement saplings. The residents' lawyer, Robert Gilbert, estimated the destroyed trees were worth $350 to $400 apiece, or a maximum of about $50 million. He said it would take time to determine how much each homeowner might receive under the verdict, though he will likely appeal the compensation amount....
Billings area inventor makes horse riding safer If you're ever ridden a horse you probably know that accidents can happen. Well about twenty years ago, a local rancher set out to find a way to prevent some of those accidents. His goal was to stop riders from getting a foot caught in a stirrup and being drug to death by the horse. Today his invention is saving lives all around the country. "The first time your body is hung up you can go right into the hind legs of a horse and that's a natural response for that horse to buck and kick and try and get away," says breakaway stirrup inventor Mike McCoy. In all his years of riding McCoy, a local rancher, was only drug by a horse once. But after hearing hundreds of stories of others who weren't so lucky, Mike McCoy had an idea. "Any time your toe is wedged in a stirrup or your foot is all the way through it, before you're drug, that stirrup always rotates 90 degrees about that stirrup leather and at 44 degrees rotation we have a mechanism designed to release." The small devise has 29 different parts. McCoy says, "There is more in this little mechanism than there is in most pistols or rifles". A lot of people thought the stirrup would release at random but Mike designed the stirrups to specifically release in emergency situations only....