BLM finds grazing harmful to protected monument Cattle grazing on the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument harms the flora and fauna the monument was created to protect, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has concluded. In a long-awaited assessment expected to be released today, the agency found that cattle grazing on the monument, created by presidential proclamation in 2000 to protect its rich biodiversity, does not meet the proclamation's intent, said Howard Hunter, the monument's assistant manager. "We have determined the grazing practices are not compatible with the proclamation, meaning we are not adequately protecting the tangible and intangible items in the monument," he said. The assessment's release kicks off a 30-day public comment period. The 52,947-acre monument in the BLM's Medford District was established to protect what scientists say is one of the most biologically diverse places in North America. For instance, the monument contains more than 100 species of butterflies. However, the area has been used by local ranchers for more than a century for cattle grazing when the lower elevation pastures dry up each summer. Eleven ranchers currently hold grazing leases for 2,714 animal unit months on nine grazing allotments within the monument....
Bush admin opposes federal pay for wolf kills The Bush administration is objecting to legislation that would ask the federal government to help compensate livestock owners whose animals are killed by wolves. Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming sponsored the bill that would approve federal matching money for state trust funds that pay ranchers for those losses. It would also allow federal grants for states to help lower the risk of wolf kills. Officials testifying at a Senate hearing Wednesday said the payments should not be a federal responsibility. Barrasso said Wyoming paid $1.2 million in such compensation last year. The legislation follows the federal government's decision to remove gray wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act and turn over wolf management to Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, where an estimated 1,500 wolves roam. Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the mid-1990s after the population dwindled significantly, and the species' population has grown rapidly. Both Tester and Barrasso reacted angrily to the administration stance. An Interior official testifying at the hearing declined to answer questions about the administration's position and referred all senators' inquiries to Ed Bangs, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who led the wolf recovery effort. Bangs was reluctant to elaborate on the reasons for administration opposition, saying only that it was most appropriate for the state to determine compensation....
New records for smokejumpers, air tankers The unprecedented number of fires in Northern California during the past two weeks has elicited a record-breaking pace from smokejumpers and air tanker crews. In just the past two weeks, the Redding Smokejumper Base has supported 363 jumps - already more than their 10-year average of about 320 jumps a season. "At this point we are well on pace to beat our record of 523 jumps in a single season, which we set in 1999," said Don Sand, Redding Smokejumper Base manager for the U.S. Forest Service. Normally 40 jumpers are based in Redding as a national resource that may be dispatched anywhere in the United States. An additional 100 smokejumpers were brought into Redding from other bases during the past two weeks to help with the large number of fires. Air tankers operating out of the Redding Air Tanker Base have dropped 750,000 gallons of fire retardant this year supporting firefighting operations in Northern California. Their 10-year average is 762,000 gallons per season. "The most retardant delivered from this base in a season is 1.8 million gallons," said John Richardson, air operations branch chief for Cal Fire. "At this pace, the Redding base will exceed its annual record."....
House Passes FLAME Act - HR 5541 Congressman Raul M. Grijalva, Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, praised the passage of the “Federal Land Assistance, Management and Enhancement Act” (FLAME Act) (HR. 5541). Rep. Grijalva is an original sponsor with Representative Rahall, Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, of the bill, which creates funds for federal agencies at the start of forest fire season. “As our communities see longer and more intense fire seasons, this bill allows us to be proactive,” stated Grijalva. “Public land managers can have the resources for prevention and protection without destroying their day to day operational budget.” The FLAME Act aims to prevent future catastrophic, wildland fires from crippling federal land management agency budgets by creating an emergency federal fund dedicated solely to fighting these devastating fires, separate from appropriated agency fire fighting funding. Over the last decade, the rapid increase in destructive forest fires across the United States has caused federal fire suppression costs to skyrocket– dramatically shifting spending priorities at the expense of other important Interior Department and Forest Service programs, especially programs that would reduce the intensity of fires and protect communities....
Obama Chimes In on Plum Creek, Forest Service Agreement Barack Obama, who is ramping up his efforts to woo Montanans, weighed in this week on the “closed-door" deal between the Plum Creek Timber Company and the Forest Service that could pave the way for development of Plum Creek timberlands in the state. When the issue hit the pages of the Washington Post the Obama campaign was moved to chime in, Obama staffer Nayyera Haq said. In a written statement released Tuesday, Obama wrote: At a time when Montana’s sportsmen are finding it increasingly hard to access lands, it is outrageous that the Bush administration would exacerbate the problem by encouraging prime hunting and fishing lands to be carved up and closed off. We should be working to conserve these lands permanently so that future generations of Americans can enjoy them to hunt, fish, hike and camp....
Four Arrested in Ketchikan in U.S. Marshal's Operation The U.S. Marshals, in coordination with 25 other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies conducted a six day enforcement operation in Alaska from June 23 to June 28. Operation FALCON, standing for Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally, targeted violent felons, gang members, and sex offenders. FALCON 2008 captured 69 fugitives and cleared 83 warrants in Alaska for crimes including failures to register as a sex offender, distribution of child pornography, drug offenses, assault, burglary, robbery and theft. These arrests also included probation violations stemming from sexual abuse of minors, weapon offenses, and failures to appear for various original charges. In Ketchikan, members of the Ketchikan Police Department, Alaska State Troopers, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Federal Marshall participated in this operation....Another one to remember when the Forest Service claims they don't have the money or personnel to police federal lands. They are too busy arresting sex offenders and gang members.
Land grant claims won’t go away Some of my neighbors in northern New Mexico call this region “occupied Mexico.” They’re only half joking. Heirs of community land grants made by the Spanish and Mexican governments are still arguing – 160 years later – that the U.S. did not honor its obligations under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty promised to protect all pre-existing land grants and other property rights of the former Mexican citizens when the U.S. took this territory from Mexico. But it didn’t. As a result, over 80 percent of community land grants were lost to Indo-Hispano villagers, in most cases after a century, or two or three, of living and working on those lands. All the Indian Pueblos retained their land grants, which became reservations under the U.S. system, but most of the rest ended up as Forest Service or BLM land. Of course this is not the first or last time the U.S. violated a treaty for land, but this fight is still going strong. In the latest issue of La Jicarita News, scholar David Correia reviews the well-documented history of fraud and various chicanery within the office of the Surveyor General and the Court of Private Land Grant Claims, which were supposed to adjudicate land claims during the late 1800s. And he lays out a convincing legal argument about how the U.S. government did not fulfill its fiduciary duty under the treaty....
Rise of the unelected America's future prosperity may hinge on who wins an internal fight within the Bush administration. On the one side are the bureaucrats of the Environmental Protection Agency. In the name of combating global warming, they are gearing up to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. It's not just the carbon dioxide from auto tailpipes. It's emissions from all sources: factories, schools, restaurant kitchens, heating and cooling systems, power plants, farm equipment and businesses of all types. In a nutshell: everything. Because almost everything that uses energy produces CO2. But media reports reveal EPA is in conflict with the White House Office of Management and Budget, which answers more directly to the president. Their job is to ride herd on other bureaucrats so our economy isn't stifled by excessive red tape. The immediate fight is over an unreleased (but leaked to the press) 250-page proposal from the EPA, announcing its intent to adopt rules that expand the 1970 Clean Air Act by designating carbon dioxide as a pollutant that endangers us. Who gave EPA such power despite no clear language in U.S. law? Congress never agreed. As noted by Ben Lieberman of The Heritage Foundation, "Legislatively, Congress has rejected every attempt to control carbon dioxide emissions." But another unelected body, the U.S. Supreme Court, in last year's 5-4 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, embraced the United Nations' philosophy that global warming is an imminent danger. The justices decreed that EPA must therefore possess power to address it by regulating CO2....
Top Democrat may back new offshore drilling A top U.S. Democratic senator said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday that he would consider supporting opening up new areas for offshore oil and gas drilling. "I'm open to drilling and responsible production," Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin told The Wall Street Journal, adding that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could also support the move. However, Durbin said his support for opening new areas to drilling was contingent on setting requirements that oil and gas companies begin production within a specified time frame on acreage they have leased from the government. The spike in oil prices to record highs above $145 per barrel has prompted calls for the U.S. government to allow energy producers to explore for oil and gas off the East and West Coasts and in the eastern region of the Gulf of Mexico. Those areas are currently off limits to exploration....
New book reveals the extraordinary story behind "Orange Blossom Special" One of the most bizarre stories in all of popular music is the story behind Orange Blossom Special, arguably the century's best-known fiddle tune as well as one of the most-performed songs of the 20th century and a signature hit for the late Johnny Cash. In a newly released book, Florida-based author Randy Noles investigates the lives of the two men credited with authoring the song, which salutes a legendary streamlined passenger train. The book, Fiddler's Curse: The Untold Story of Ervin T. Rouse, Chubby Wise, Johnny Cash and the Orange Blossom Special (Centerstream Publishing, $14.95), reveals the luckless Rouse to be the sole author. Rouse, who endured tragedy, alcoholism and mental illness, spent his final years fiddling for tips in isolated taverns at the edge of the Everglades. Wise, who achieved fame as the seminal fiddler of the bluegrass era and the acclaimed author of the song, also struggled to overcome personal demons and heal the scars of childhood abuse and abandonment. Cash, the tortured superstar who made the Special a mainstream hit, quietly championed Rouse and earned the enmity of Wise following a perceived onstage slight. "The book settles a longstanding authorship controversy over the song," said Noles. "More importantly though, it offers a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of these brilliant but deeply flawed men and paints a vivid portrait of life as an itinerate musician in the 1930s and 1940s."....