Anxiety Grows in West Over Firefighting Efforts As fire season arrives in the West, there are growing doubts about the region’s ability to attack the kind of sweeping blazes that devastated parts of California last year. The cost of fuel in fire trucks, a scramble to hire new firefighters and new budget constraints have sowed anxiety as a persistent drought worsens in California and elsewhere, even as heavy rains cause flooding in other parts of the country. Here in San Diego County, where eight people died in two big fires last year, a long-recommended regional county fire department has still not been created, and the San Diego city fire chief has warned that a number of homes built ever closer into wild lands face peril in another major blaze. On Wednesday, the union representing federal firefighters testified before Congress that nearly a third of the federal fire engines in California are unavailable because of staffing shortfalls. Many firefighters have retired or moved to higher-paying jobs, said Casey Judd, the union’s business manager. Over all, the United States Forest Service and other agencies “are not as prepared for the wildfire season as the agencies would like us to blindly believe,” Mr. Judd said in an interview....
U.S. Forest Service's wildfire readiness debated on Capitol Hill Bush administration officials clashed with lawmakers and federal firefighter groups Wednesday over whether the nation is ready for the wildfire season now under way. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, reiterated his stance that the agency is prepared. He made his assurances during testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at a hearing to assess the nation's firefighting readiness. Officials from a pair of employee organizations, though, testified that long-standing morale problems, staffing shortages and insufficient resources could hamper federal firefighting efforts. The groups want higher pay for federal firefighters to keep them from leaving. Already this year, some 29,000 wildfires have scorched more than 1.5 million acres, primarily in Florida and Texas, according to joint testimony presented by Rey and James Cason, associate deputy secretary for the Interior Department. But as the season wears on, the bulk of the danger is expected to shift to California and other parts of the West, they said....
Judge Gives a Victory to Tree Sitters in Berkeley Oaks A group of protesters who have occupied a stand of coastal oaks at the University of California, Berkeley, for 19 months claimed victory on Wednesday when a Superior Court judge ruled that a university project on the site must be temporarily delayed to address lingering concerns about the project. The ruling by Judge Barbara J. Miller came at the culmination of a tense standoff between protesters and the police. Doug Buckwald, the founder of Save the Oaks at the Stadium, said, “Because of the work of lots and lots of people in the community, in the city and in the trees, we have protected this grove.” The university wants to cut the trees, adjacent to the football stadium, to build a $123 million athletic center. Three groups, including the City of Berkeley, have sued the university over its plans, which would also include a seismic retrofit on the 1923 stadium, which sits on the Hayward fault....
Project seeks peace among sheep and wolves Working collaboratively in the upper Wood River Valley, a group of local residents with diverse views on the Western wolf issue are proving that people can sometimes set aside their differences for a bigger cause. Set to begin just days from now is an innovative project that seeks to promote harmony between wild gray wolves and the domestic sheep bands that graze thousands of acres across the remote upper valley. Out of the eyesight of most local residents, the first of many sheep bands will be let onto federal lands managed by the Sawtooth National Forest on Friday, June 20. Their release, less than 10 miles northwest of Ketchum near the mouth of Oregon Gulch, will put in motion a plan that has taken numerous private meetings and a whole lot of goodwill to develop. The project will require herders working for three local sheep producers to work closely with a trio of field assistants hired by Defenders of Wildlife, a national, non-profit conservation group that works with ranchers operating in the West's wolf-occupied areas....
High energy prices upset balance in U.S. West The log cabins and dirt roads on Jeanie Alderson's isolated ranch suggest little has changed since her great-great aunt and uncle first came to the rolling hills of southeastern Montana 120 years ago. Yet with energy prices at record highs, she fears that interest in long-dormant rights to develop oil and gas resources underneath her land could badly upset the natural beauty and balance of the rugged American West. "No one in 1916 or 1909 had any concept of strip mining or coalbed methane pumping out, and the devastation," Alderson said. "When you start pumping out groundwater, we think, 'Uh oh, there goes my livelihood.'" Divided ownership of land above and below ground -- known as split estates -- has deep roots in the American West, where the federal government offered cheap land to settlers and railroad companies but often kept subsurface rights.
Today, the government manages 700 million acres (280 million hectares) of mineral rights. On 58 million of those acres, mostly in the West, others own the rights to the surface....
New supervisor at Lincoln National Forest Southwestern Regional Forester Corbin Newman announced that Jacqueline "Jacque" Buchanan is now Forest Supervisor of the Lincoln National Forest headquartered in Alamogordo. She had served as deputy forest supervisor and has been acting forest supervisor since the retirement of former Lincoln National Forest Supervisor, S. E. "Lou" Woltering, who retired in April. Buchanan has more than 20 years experience with several agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture including the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, Farmers Home Administration, Farm Service Agency, as well as the U.S. Forest Service. "Jacque has demonstrated that she works well with people from all walks of life, in addition to her skills in natural resources management," Newman said. "She did a good job as Glenwood District Ranger on the Gila National Forest before moving to the Lincoln National Forest, and she will do a good job as Lincoln Forest Supervisor."....
Bills would expand Oregon wilderness and salmon protection Members of Oregon's congressional delegation introduced legislation Wednesday to expand wilderness around Mount Hood, protect tributaries of the Rogue River, and enlarge the boundaries of the Oregon Caves National Monument. Speaking from Washington, D.C., Democratic sponsors of the House bills said they would protect valuable parts of Oregon's landscape for future generations to enjoy, as well as salmon habitat at a time when populations have been crashing, and raise the profile of the tiny Oregon Caves National Monument. Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild, a conservation group, said with Democrats controlling the House and Senate, President Bush interested in greening up his legacy, and sponsors taking great pains to enlist broad support, the bills should face easier passage than past efforts. "There is not a lot of conflict out there over Mount Hood wilderness," he said. "There is the realization that the Mount Hood National Forest is a different place. The primary economic value of the Mount Hood to Oregon is recreation. I think there is a growing recognition of that, even by the timber industry." Sen. Ron Wyden said he was confident that the Senate version of the Mount Hood wilderness bill would overcome procedural obstacles thrown up in the past by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., because it will be sent to the floor with other bills holding broad support. The Mount Hood bill would create 130,000 acres of new wilderness areas, give wild and scenic river protections to 80 miles of rivers, and designate 34,550 acres as national recreation areas on the Mount Hood National Forest. It also provides for land exchanges between the U.S. Forest Service and a ski resort, the Port of Cascade Locks, and Clackamas County....
Bush administration defends recreation fees A proposal to abolish fees to hike, picnic or use toilets on federal public lands could cause the closing of thousands of recreation sites to the public if Congress approves it, the head of the U.S. Forest Service told a House panel Wednesday. Mark Rey told two subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee that nearly one-third of the Forest Service's 17,000 recreation sites could be jeopardized if Congress passes legislation introduced by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to abolish the fees. Baucus' bill would roll back recreation fees Congress first allowed under a temporary program in 1996 and then extended in late 2004 for another 10 years. The fees are collected from those who camp, hike, picnic, fish, hunt and launch boats on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Forest Service. The fees, which range from $2 per vehicle to get into a picnic area to $18 for an improved camp site, are used to address the agencies' growing maintenance backlog, Rey said, and are supported by 80 percent of public lands visitors, according to a University of Idaho study. The fees apply only in places that have picnic tables, improved parking, informational signs, trash cans, toilets and police patrols....
Rainbows may have conflict with scouts The Boy Scouts of America (BSA), with plans to have members in the Big Sandy area for a national public service project, could pose a problem for members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, who were looking at the same site as the location for this year’s annual Rainbow Gathering. “We’re hopeful that we can work something out that’s mutually acceptable to the Rainbows and to the Forest Service,” said Mark Rey, U.S. Under Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment, during a conference call with members of the Rainbow family on Monday. After unfavorable weather conditions brought about rumors of a cancelled Spring Council for the Rainbows, it was reported last week that those who attended the event had quickly chosen a location near Dutch Joe Guard Station on the Big Sandy River as the site of the this year’s annual Rainbow Gathering. “Right now we don’t have a confirmed spot,” said Rita Vollmer, the information officer of the forest service Incident Command Team that has been assigned to the gathering. “We’re just waiting to see how it all comes together … we’re not talking about it definitely being Big Sandy.”....
Court asked to halt drilling on major Wyoming gas field A conservation group asked a federal judge Wednesday to halt further drilling within a booming natural gas field in western Wyoming. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership claims the government has reneged on promises to shield deer, sage grouse and other wildlife from energy development in the Pinedale Anticline. The geologic formation an hour south of Jackson has an estimated 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas _ one of the largest reserves in the United States. About 1,000 wells have gone in so far, and a pending plan would allow 4,400 more over the next 60 years. The fast pace of development, coupled with the presence of large numbers of deer, grouse pronghorn and other game species, have made the area a signature battleground for the Bush administration's pro-energy policies. Federal and industry officials say rapid development of oil and gas fields across the West is critical to meet rising energy demands. Environmentalists say the drilling is moving too fast, leaving environmental devastation in its wake....
BLM plans emergency wild horse gatherings in Nevada The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced plans Wednesday to gather about 1,700 wild horses from the Nevada range, citing ongoing drought, dwindling forage and an over abundance of animals in three herd management areas. “There is very limited water available for the horses, very little food,” said Susie Stokke, BLM's Nevada wild horse and burro program manager. On the Nevada Wild Horse Range north of Las Vegas, Stokke said animals are traveling 5-10 miles a day to get food and water, causing some animals to become lame. “There just isn't any food left within a three-to-five mile radius of water sources,” she said. To round up the animals from that area, Stokke said traps will be set around the limited water supplies that are accessible by vehicle. "They're coming in in very large numbers to water,” she said. At times, hundreds of animals congregate at the sites, she said....
Ranchers: Brucellosis vaccine is failing Twenty years ago, it wasn’t unusual for wild elk to enter cattle feedlines on private ranches in western Wyoming as winter storms raged. Many ranchers were aware of the threat of transmission of the disease brucellosis, and voluntarily vaccinated their cattle with the Strain 19 vaccine to provide protection to their herds. In fact, they "bootlegged" Strain 19 into the country before it was legal for use here. But Strain 19 was problematic because it could cause "false positive" reactions in blood tests. Animals that tested positive for the disease would have to be slaughtered and their tissues cultured to determine if they actually harbored the disease. Just over a decade ago, federal animal health officials determined that a new cattle vaccine, RB51, was better than Strain 19. RB51 offered the same immunity level as Strain 19, but wouldn’t cause the false positives. The USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service banned the use of Strain 19, so the nation’s cattle industry began widespread use of RB51. Sublette County ranchers told animal health officials Tuesday evening in Pinedale that RB51 hasn’t lived up to its promises: It appears to provide short-term immunity, but unlike Strain 19, RB51’s protective effect appears to wear off in a few years -- something not even researchers knew about....
Farm Bill Is Approved President Bush vetoed the farm bill again on Wednesday, but Congress quickly reapproved the $290 billion bill. The bill, which Mr. Bush vetoed for the first time in May, had been resubmitted after a clerical error mistakenly dropped 34 pages from the first bill. To prevent legal challenges, Congress and Mr. Bush went through the cycle again. Mr. Bush re-vetoed the bill, and the House and Senate again voted to override. The Senate vote on Wednesday was 80 to 14, and the House vote was 317 to 109. Congress had overridden a veto by Mr. Bush on only one other bill, legislation authorizing $23 billion in water projects that was sent to the president in November....