Full 9th Circuit OKs snowmaking on sacred Ariz. mountain A federal appeals court late last week allowed an Arizona ski resort to spray reclaimed sewage water across its slopes to make snow despite pleas from Indian tribes who consider the mountain sacred. The Aug. 8 decision by a full panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco clears Arizona Snowbowl to expand its 777-acre resort. Owners want to add snowmaking equipment, a fifth chair lift and plan to cut away 100 acres of surrounding forest for more room. The full 9th Circuit overturned a ruling made last year by a three-judge panel that held that using wastewater on the San Francisco Peaks violated the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The full panel disagreed. It concluded the tribes would still have full use of the mountain for their ceremonies and the snowmaking would not affect that. No plants would be harmed, no ceremonies would be physically affected and no places of worship would be made inaccessible....
BLM eyes salvage of 40 million feet of Ore. timber The Bureau of Land Management wants to salvage 40 million board feet of timber blown down in a Jan. 4 windstorm. Environmentalists, who have opposed many salvage sales in the past, are at least partly on aboard. A 196-page environmental assessment for the Butte Falls blowdown salvage project was issued July 27 for a 30-day public review, with comments due Aug. 26. "This put about 40 million board feet on the ground, everything from large trees to small trees," said Chris McAlear, the Butte Falls area field manager. A timber industry group supports the project while a conservationist organization will go along with some of it but has concerns about the rest....
No management plan: BLM makes gift of land to off-roaders, drillers It's an off-roader's dream: a federal management plan making nearly 2 million acres of public land a playground for off-highway vehicles. The Bureau of Land Management's proposal for the BLM lands in six Utah counties is also a gift tied with a big red ribbon and handed to oil and gas developers. But it can hardly be called "management," especially the type of multiple-use management and land conservation the BLM is charged to provide for the Western lands owned by all Americans. By opening up 90 percent of the area to OHV use and 80 percent to drilling, the plan effectively excludes quiet recreation - mountain biking, hiking and backpacking - and sacrifices scenic vistas, wildlife habitat, and cultural treasures including archaeological ruins, relics and rock art. This is not multiple use, but an attempt in the waning months of the Bush administration to remove public lands protections. The BLM, in approving this management plan for the Richfield area spread over Sanpete, Sevier, Piute, Wayne, Garfield and Kane counties, has taken the side of motorized recreation and energy development in the battle for some of the last untrammeled open spaces in the state....
Most N.M. Leases See Drilling ; Some Areas Idle Due to Opposition, While Some Are Dry of Oil or Gas Opponents of opening new areas offshore and in Alaska to oil drilling frequently cite the fact that millions of acres already leased by oil and gas companies sit idle. Oil companies, they say, are hoarding and should drill these leases before potential new fields are opened. But, in New Mexico, more than threefourths of leased federal acres are delivering natural gas or crude oil. Some of the leases that aren't producing simply came up dry, and some others have been tied up by environmental and conservation groups opposed to drilling. Those include Otero Mesa in southern New Mexico and the Galisteo Basin north of Albuquerque and near Santa Fe. The state's Oil Conservation Division, which regulates groundwater protection on state and federal land leased to oil and gas companies, has also blocked some new exploration on leases in Rio Arriba County. Big picture numbers: The Bureau of Land Management has leased 5.4 million acres of federal land to oil and gas producers in New Mexico. Of that, about 3.9 million acres are in production, according to Tony Herrell, the BLM's state deputy director for minerals....