Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Bush to Create Three Pacific Marine Sanctuaries

President George W. Bush on Tuesday will designate three remote Pacific island areas as national monuments to protect them from energy extraction and commercial fishing in what will be the largest marine conservation effort in history. The three areas — totaling some 195,280 square miles — include the Mariana Trench, the deepest spot on earth at 36,000 feet below the sea. Each location harbors unique species and some of the rarest geological formations on Earth — from the world's largest land crab to a bird that incubates its eggs in the heat of underwater volcanoes. All will be protected as national monuments — the same status afforded to statues and cultural sites — under the 1906 Antiquities Act. The law allows the government to immediately phase out commercial fishing and other extractive uses. However, recreational fishing, tourism and scientific research could still occur inside the three areas....

Nevada state BLM director going to Washington

The head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Nevada is headed to Washington, D.C., to serve as acting agency director during the transition to the Obama administration. Ron Wenker is expected remain in the temporary post for about four months until a new director and deputy director are named. Wenker became BLM Nevada state director in October 2005. He began his career with the BLM in 1971 and has served in five states and Washington, D.C. Amy Leuders, associate Nevada state director, will serve as acting state director during Wenker's absence.

Conservation groups threaten suit over oil shale

Environmental groups are threatening to sue the federal government to block plans for commercial oil shale development on nearly 2 million acres of public land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Twelve groups sent letters to Tuesday to the Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management saying they will sue unless the potential impacts on endangered species are addressed. They argue the final plan and rules approved late last year violated federal law because the agencies didn't formally consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "They cut Fish and Wildlife Service out of it," said Melissa Thrailkill, an attorney with Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco. Documents obtained by the groups under the Freedom of Information Act show that Fish and Wildlife Service biologists were concerned about "information gaps" in the BLM's environmental analysis. The biologists suggested barring leases in habitat for threatened or sensitive species, the documents show....

How much ‘old growth’ forest is left in the U.S.?

As crazy as it sounds, no one really knows how much old growth is left in America’s forested regions, mainly because various agencies and scientists have different ideas about how to define the term. Generally speaking, “old growth” refers to forests containing trees often hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years old. But even when there is agreement on a specific definition, differences in the methods used to inventory remaining stands of old growth forest can produce major discrepancies. Or so complains the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry (NCSSF) in its recent report, “Beyond Old Growth: Older Forests in a Changing World.” In 1991, for example, the U.S. Forest Service and the nonprofit Wilderness Society each released its own inventory of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. They both used the Forest Service’s definition based on the number, age and density of large trees per acre, the characteristics of the forest canopy, the number of dead standing trees and fallen logs and other criteria. However, because each agency used different remote sensing techniques to glean data, the Forest Service came up with 4.3 million acres of old-growth and the Wilderness Society found only two million acres. The NCSSF also studied the data, and they concluded that 3.5 million acres (or six percent) of the region’s 56.8 million acres of forest qualified as old growth–that is, largely trees over 30 inches in diameter with complex forest canopies....

Montana: Policy changes needed to help fight wildfire

The bipartisan committee endorsed about 30 legislative bill drafts, most of which don't involve increased state funding. The committee, chaired by Sen. John Cobb of Augusta, focused on prevention and shared responsibility. For example: • Senate Bill 144 provides for implementing statewide building standards for residences in the wildland-urban interface, the most costly area for fire suppression and the area with highest risk of loss to life and homes. The wildland-urban interface refers to rural or forested areas where subdivisions and other city-like development has taken place. • House Joint Resolution 7 calls on the federal government to mount "safe and aggressive initial attack on wildfires on all federal lands that have the potential to move to state or private land. ..." • Several draft bills would require insurance carriers to provide information on fire risk reduction to their customers and to offer discounts to customers in the wildland-urban interface who meet fire risk reduction standards. Another bill would offer tax credits to homeowners who take defined fire risk reduction actions....

NM: Industry questions board's authority over emissions

New Mexico utilities and energy producers think the state Legislature and the federal government should address greenhouse-gas emissions, not the state's Environmental Improvement Board. Industry representatives Monday opposed a petition that asks the board to create a statewide cap on greenhouse-gas emissions from sources such as the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants and oil or natural-gas production. They think the state board might not have the legal authority to regulate the gases that scientists link to climate change and global warming. The board has scheduled a hearing April 6 to consider arguments about its authority to regulate emissions. Pending results of that hearing, the board set an Aug. 3 date to consider the request for a statewide cap. Anyone in the state can petition the board to change regulations. The petition was filed by a 4-year-old nonprofit, New Energy Economy, headed by physician Dr. John Fogarty. The petition asks the Environmental Improvement Board to regulate global-warming pollution and set a cap to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions levels by 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, similar to a recommendation from an international group of scientists, Fogarty said....

Students Startled After Deer Jump Into School

Officials at a Hamilton Township school are hoping for a return to normal Tuesday, a day after class was disrupted by two deer leaping through a window. Pastor Lance Walker of the Faith Baptist School says the deer jumped into a teacher's supply room Monday morning, startling three students and a teacher who were working on a lesson. They managed to get out and close the door, leaving the deer to trash the room. The school canceled outdoor recess for the day. By early afternoon, animal control officers showed up and tranquilized the animals so they could be taken away from the school.

Cattle group seeks concessions from packer

A Billings-based cattle group is calling on the world's largest meatpacker to surrender its Western feedlots as part of a settlement agreement with state and federal antitrust lawyers. Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund USA contends that getting Brazilian based JBS S.A. to surrender its feedlots is crucial to Montana cow-calf operations, which are faced with fewer buyers and less competition for their product. "Our position is that the market is already too highly concentrated," said Bill Bullard, R-CALF chief executive. R-CALF sued JBS last year over its would-be purchase of Kansas City, Mo.-based National Beef Packing Co. JBS has been on a two-year buying spree of U.S. meatpackers, picking up Colorado-based Swift & Co. in 2007 and Smithfield Beef Group last fall. The National Beef purchase would make JBS the largest beef packer in the United States and would trim the number of major packing companies from five to three. The governments sued JBS and National Beef last year to stop the sale. But all parties agreed in mid-December to set aside litigation and work out a settlement. The first signs of an agreement between the governments and JBS allowing the sale could come Jan. 16 at a status hearing in Chicago, a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman said. JBS did not return messages left with the company Monday. Early indications were that National Beef might cut one of its packing plants out of the deal to shrink JBS's footprint in the U.S. beef industry. Bullard said R-CALF's concern is that any packing plant cut from the deal wouldn't really stimulate market competition....

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

NY Times: Is Ken Salazar Too Nice?

The word on Ken Salazar, tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to run the Interior Department, is that he is friendly, approachable, a good listener, a genial compromiser and a skillful broker of deals. That is also the rap on Ken Salazar. What the Interior Department needs right now is someone willing to bust heads when necessary and draw the line against the powerful commercial groups — developers, ranchers, oil and gas companies, the off-road vehicle industry — that have long treated the department as a public extension of their private interests. Conservationists and pretty much everyone else exhausted by the Bush administration’s ideological rigidity and deference to commercial interests have welcomed Mr. Salazar’s appointment. The Colorado Democrat has a solid voting record on issues involving wilderness and wildlife protection and can be expected to bring a strong conservation ethic to the top of the department. Yet that will not be nearly enough to reform and reinvigorate the department....

Everything's Cool

According to DailyTech blogger Michael Asher, "Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close." This isn't Asher's opinion, but fact based on data from the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center. News about growing sea ice isn't exactly what environmentalists who predicted the North Pole would be free of ice in 2008 want to hear. Al Gore and his fellow alarmists have been telling us for years that melting sea ice and glaciers will dramatically and dangerously increase sea levels. In his 2006 movie "An Inconvenient Truth," he needlessly stoked fear by claiming that global warming could cause sea levels to rise 20 feet "in the near future." It was one of three dozen misstatements made in the Oscar-winning propaganda film that was promoted as a serious scientific documentary. We would expect global warmongers to note, as Asher did, that because sea ice freely floats around the oceans, it has no effect on sea level....

N.J. enviros deeply divided over record of Obama's EPA nominee

Depending on who you ask, Lisa Jackson is either the best or worst thing that ever happened to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which she led from February 2006 to November 2008. For the most part, New Jersey's biggest environmental groups praise her work on climate change and celebrate her nomination to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But she also has a passionate and vocal group of detractors, mainly people who have worked on toxics in the state, both within the DEP and outside it. Her critics say she's a political player who has undermined science within the department. The deep divide between greens in the state has lead to some nasty finger-pointing on both sides. "When she became commissioner we had high expectations, and we thought she was going to come in and move the DEP away from being a failure and actually moving it to an organization that would be strong on the environment, strong on enforcement, exemplify leadership," said Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association, a nonprofit based in central New Jersey. "I was sadly disappointed, as were many folks in the environmental community in New Jersey, by her performance as commissioner of the DEP."....

Timber company drops road deal with Forest Service

The nation's largest owner of timberland disclosed Monday that it will no longer pursue changes in agreements governing its use of U.S. Forest Service roads — changes that critics complained could transform forests into housing subdivisions. Critics of the proposed changes had included President-elect Barack Obama and Montana's junior senator. Changes in the agreements would benefit the public, but "given the lack of receptivity, we have decided not to go forward," Plum Creek Timber Co. Chief Executive Officer Rick Holley wrote in a letter to Missoula County, which opposed altering the agreements. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey indicated as recently as last week that the changes negotiated privately by the Forest Service and Plum Creek would become final before he leaves office when the Bush administration ends this month. Rey, a former lobbyist for the timber industry, said the company's decision is "not good news for the federal government or the public at large." He had maintained the changes secured new benefits for the government rather than for Plum Creek....

FS settles with enviro group in Idaho timber suit

The U.S. Forest Service settled a lawsuit filed by environmentalists fighting a central Idaho timber sale by agreeing to scale back logging that was meant to reduce fuels near the town of Salmon. In May, the Missoula, Mont.-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies won an order from U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge to halt the Salmon-Challis National Forest's 1,486-acre Moose Creek timber sale, which had been approved in 2006. According to a pact signed this week by both sides that resolves the litigation, work will now be limited to timber cutting in several areas that a local logger had purchased before the lawsuit was filed in 2007. The Salmon-Challis National Forest also agreed to stop logging old growth stands greater than 80 acres and apply heightened scrutiny to future commercial logging - at least until it updates the Land and Resource Management Plan it uses to manage its 4.3 million acre territory. The agency also must pay the environmental group's $23,000 legal bill....

Snowbasin withdraws backcountry-permit request

Snowbasin Resort on Monday withdrew its request for a U.S. Forest Service permit to guide backcountry skiers in out-of-bound areas around the resort, including the west face of Mount Ogden. Denzel Rowland, general manager of the resort, said such a permit isn't worth the controversy it triggered. Backcountry skiers and boarders - as well as environmentalists - had been writing to the Forest Service, opposing the permit request. Many said they feared guided recreation would impinge on their own independent recreation; others said it could lead to commercialization of the back side of Mount Ogden, above the city of Ogden. Snowbasin is on both Forest Service and land it owns on the east side of the ridge. "We'll just retract it and forget about it," said Rowland. "People are very suspicious, and there is no reason to be suspicious .. . . It doesn't really matter. It's not that important to me." Chip Sibbernsen, the Ogden district ranger for the Uintah-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, said it's unfortunate that one of Snowbasin's main goals - to better familiarize the resort ski patrol with backcountry routes - won't be realized....

Wolf debate lingers into new year

When it comes to wolves in the Northern Rockies, it's nearly impossible to get all interested parties to concur on anything. But if the Bush administration proceeds as planned, there could be an odd mix of groups all agreeing it's a bad idea. Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have indicated they plan to remove wolves from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act -- once again -- before President George W. Bush leaves office on Jan. 20. If that happens, conservationists, Wyoming ranchers and the state of Wyoming itself could all file lawsuits against the decision. It will depend on whether the Fish and Wildlife Service follows through on a threat to rescind its approval of Wyoming's wolf management plan. If Wyoming's plan is no longer an officially approved scheme, the Bush administration could delist wolves in Montana and Idaho only -- and continue to classify the predators as an endangered species in the Cowboy State. And that would likely stir up a storm of litigation....

Brady is off-target

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is out to block the right of individuals to carry concealed weapons on national park property. That’s hardly surprising, given the Brady group’s historic fight against handguns. What is unexpected is the organization’s claim about why the ruling by the Bush administration that allows people with concealed-carry permits to bring their guns into national parks and monuments was wrong: It allegedly violates federal environmental regulations. Oh, come on. Do Brady officials think there will be so much lead flying once guns are allowed in parks and monuments that rivers and streams will be polluted? Do they really believe, as their lawsuit suggests, that concealed weapons pose a serious hazard to endangered species? We understand Brady arguing against guns in parks as a public-safety issue, but even that argument is difficult to sustain. As one of Brady’s own studies says, it’s tough to determine how many crimes have been committed by people holding legal concealed-carry permits. However, statistics from Florida, where a concealed-carry has been in place since 1987, show only a tiny percentage of permits were revoked because of a gun-related crime. Also, people with permits are legally able to carry their guns on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property, and there hasn’t been a significant increase in crime on those lands. That’s why 50 U.S. senators, including soon-to-be Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, urged that guns be allowed in parks....

Land-auction meddler has a new plan

The University of Utah student who foiled a federal oil and gas lease auction the Friday before Christmas hopes he can buy time for Utah's scenic redrock desert - and himself - until the Bush administration is out the door. Tim DeChristopher announced Wednesday afternoon that he would pay the U.S. Bureau of Land Management $45,000 to hold the 13 lease parcels he won in a Dec. 19 sale. His aim is to fend off drilling at least until President-elect Barack Obama takes office and new officials are in charge of the federal Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management. "This would be the most effective way of ensuring we could protect the land, at least until the new administration came in," DeChristopher said. The 27-year-old economics major faces possible federal felony charges after winning bids totaling about $1.8 million on 13 lease parcels that he admitted he had neither the intention nor the money to pay for. But since committing what he called an act of civil disobedience, DeChristopher has heard from hundreds of individuals around the country willing to chip in to keep drill rigs off the land and DeChristopher out of prison....

Sheep raisers not complaining

All in all 2008 was a decent year for Idaho sheep producers said American Sheep Industry Association Secretary/Treasurer Margaret Soulen Hinson. “The market has softened, but that’s natural given the economy. Producers felt it was a good year,” said the Weiser producer with Soulen Livestock. Throughout the year, ASI remained focused on disease-transmission issues and the legal dispute between supporters of wild sheep reintroduction into the Payette National Forest and domesticated sheep ranchers who have long accessed the land for grazing. The Payette National Forest contains ideal range conditions for the 20,000 domestic sheep that graze within the forest every year and wild sheep, which are roaming into Payette domestic grazing allotments from Hells Canyon. This year, the Forest Service barred domestic sheep from parts of the Payette that connect with bighorn habitat. A legal battle is still brewing, and what happens in Payette could set precedent for the future of the sheep ranching industry, Hinson said....

Salt Lake County pitches sweeping solar initiative

Salt Lake County is all about sunshine for lighting libraries, juicing the jail and even powering Salt Palace conventions. Trouble is, that vision for speckling government rooftops with solar panels would cost tens of millions of dollars -- money the county, quite frankly, would have difficulty raising during these particularly perilous economic times. But County Mayor Peter Corroon unveiled plans Monday to move forward anyway with the state's largest solar-power initiative and to let private enterprise pick up the tab. "It's really a way to invest in solar panels with little or no cost and conserve energy," explained Corroon at a news conference staged in front of Clark Planetarium's solar-power exhibit. Here's the strategy: The county would bid out the rooftops of more than 50 government buildings to a solar-power provider, which would install the arrays at its own cost and then sell the electricity at a fixed rate back to the county. If successful, the county could draw 25 percent to 30 percent of its energy from the sun at a cost that Chief Administrative Officer Doug Willmore described as equivalent to what the county pays now. And the county, he added, won't have to cough up an estimated $72 million for equipment and installation....

Man sentenced to jail for role in attack on forest service facility

Aaron Ellringer will spend four days in jail for trespassing on a closed forest road near Rhinelander back in July 2000. According to a federal indictment, Ellringer, 35, of Eau Claire, drove a group of people to the U.S. Forest Service facility near Rhinelander on July 19, 2000. Ellringer’s passengers are accused of conducting a middle-of-the-night attack on the facility, damaging approximately 500 research trees and, using spray paint and etching cream, permanently defacing a number of forest service vehicles with references to ELF (Earth Liberation Front). Total damage to the facility was estimated at $500,000, according to the indictment. According to the indictment, Ellringer’s codefendants Katherine Christianson and Bryan Rivera believed the Rhinelander facility was a good target for an attack because the facility was performing genetic research on trees which the group believed was harmful to the environment....

USDA Issues New Memo, But Still Plans to Register People’s Property

Liberty Ark Alert:

In September, the USDA issued a memo to animal health officials that mandated NAIS premises registration be used any time someone had any activity on their property (such as vaccinations or testing) conducted under any of the federal disease control programs. We publicized the memo in November, and a public outcry ensued. The September 22 memo is posted here.

On December 22, USDA issued a new memo posted here, that revoked its September memo. The fact that USDA felt pressured to take this step is good news! But the new memo is far from being a complete victory.

On the last two pages of the new memo, USDA still provides for mandatory premises registration any time Veterinary Services personnel conduct an “activity” related to a federal disease control program, including such activities as vaccinations, certification, or surveillance. Moreover, accredited veterinarians are still expected to provide information on their clients to the government authorities to enable the voluntary or involuntary issuance of the NAIS registration. At the very end of the document, USDA includes language indicating that a property owner might elect not to have a NAIS PIN assigned to the premises, but does not explain how that fits with the directives in the memo that “all locations” that have a disease program activity “will be identified” with a NAIS PIN.” The ultimate effect is very unclear.

So, what is the difference between the two memos? The primary difference is that the new memo is more ambiguous. We’ve seen this before: in the original NAIS documents, USDA had a clear list of reportable events. By late 2007, USDA had vague categories such as “local” versus “regional,” and “high priority” versus “low priority,” to determine what comingling events were reportable. So apparently this is USDA’s mode of operation. It puts out documents with clear provisions, and then responds to citizen protests by cloaking the next document in ambiguity, without making significant substantive changes.

The substance of this new memo is very similar to the earlier memo, including mandatory registration of citizens’ property. The main improvement appears to be that people who choose not to be registered in NAIS will not be branded with a special code in the premises database, labeling them as dissenters.

In the new memo, USDA tries to add a feel-good aspect when it re-iterates that it has a procedure for people to opt out. However, if any “activity” for a disease program has occurred on the property, the property address will remain in the NAIS database.

In other words, the new memo appears to establish the following procedure:

1. If an animal health official or a federally accredited veterinarian conducts any activity (including vaccinations and certifications) under a federal disease control program (which includes brucellosis, tuberculosis, scrapie, pseudorabies, and equine infectious anemia), your information will be submitted to the agency and your property will be registered in the NAIS database.
2. If you then ask to opt out, your personal information will be deleted, but the address of your property will remain in the database with the assigned PIN number since a “program activity” is associated with it.

The language of the memo leaves a lot of unanswered questions, including what is the role of the state authorities. USDA states that “when the State or producer, or person responsible, for the premises elects not to have a standardized PIN assigned to the premises,” a state PIN will be issued. But is this only after the property is assigned a NAIS number and its owner seeks to opt out? And will the state authorities check if the registration is voluntary or not before sending people’s information to the USDA to be placed in the NAIS database? And what “events” or “activities” will prevent people from being able to opt out and use a state PIN? The memo leaves more questions than it answers...

Monday, January 05, 2009

Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close. Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards. The data is being reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions. Sea ice is floating and, unlike the massive ice sheets anchored to bedrock in Greenland and Antarctica, doesn't affect ocean levels. However, due to its transient nature, sea ice responds much faster to changes in temperature or precipitation and is therefore a useful barometer of changing conditions. Earlier this year, predictions were rife that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008. Instead, the Arctic ice saw a substantial recovery....

Grazing dustup brewing in Lode

A long-simmering dispute over grazing in high-country meadows will likely flare anew this year when the Stanislaus National Forest issues a draft plan for renewing four grazing allotments covering roughly 70,000 acres. The allotments had already been approved for renewal for 10 years, but that renewal was overturned in 2007 by the Forest Service's regional office in Vallejo. Regional foresters who considered the appeal by a coalition of environmental groups agreed with the environmentalists on two points: that the Stanislaus forest failed to adequately analyze the cumulative effects of the grazing plan on wildlife and that the forest failed to evaluate alternatives proposed by the public, including reductions in the numbers of cattle and the duration of grazing, or fencing off sensitive habitat such as wetlands to keep them from being trampled. John Buckley is executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, one of the groups that filed the appeal. While he is hopeful the new plan will have new measures to reduce the impacts of grazing, he is also frustrated that the old grazing methods have continued the past two seasons. "This year we took photos and measurements showing resource damage in scattered areas around the forest. The Forest Service mostly shrugged off those problems, saying it was in the acceptable range," Buckley said....

Ranchers oppose Yellowstone bison relocation

Ranchers are voicing concern about plans to relocate some Yellowstone Park bison to Indian reservations in Montana and Wyoming. The ranchers are worried about the animals' history of carrying brucellosis, a disease that causes domestic cows to miscarry. "There isn't anyone up here who wants it. It's a cockamamie idea, and it's an experimental deal," said John Brenden, a Scobey rancher and legislator. "I don't like anybody experimenting on us." At issue is the relocation of more than 40 bison, kept under quarantine for three years as part of an experiment to keep alive at least some of the bison migrating from Yellowstone National Park. Bison that have left the park and tested positive for brucellosis have been slaughtered in Montana to prevent the animals from coming in contact with livestock. However, the quarantined bison have tested negative for brucellosis for three years, been allowed to reproduce in captivity and are now ready for relocation. Three Indian reservations, the Fort Belknap and Fort Peck reservations in Montana and Wind River in Wyoming, have submitted proposals for acquiring the bison....

U.S. smooths away an illegal border crossing wrinkle

Smuggler's Gulch lived up to its infamous name. For a century, the narrow canyon leading into California from Mexico provided cover for cattle thieves and opium dealers, bandits and booze runners. More recently, it has hidden thousands of illegal immigrants on their journey north, sealing its place in border lore. Now, it's a fading memory. The canyon has been all but wiped off the landscape, its steep walls carved into gentle slopes, its depths filled with 35,000 truckloads of dirt as the federal government nears completion of an extensive border reinforcement project at the southwesternmost point of the United States. In 2005, the Bush administration waived state and federal environmental laws to overcome stiff opposition to the massive earth-moving effort, which entails cutting the tops off nearby hills and pushing about 1.7 million cubic yards of dirt into the gulch and neighboring Goat Canyon. Environmentalists and conservation groups fear that the project, scheduled to be completed in May, will harm the Tijuana River estuary, threaten endangered species and destroy culturally sensitive Native American sites. With construction well underway, it's clear that few of the 500 miles of new border fencing projects are transforming the environment as radically as the three miles from the Smuggler's Gulch area to the coast....

Border Fence Stops At Water's Edge

"I thought it would go all the way through the river," says John Ladd, owner of the San Jose Ranch along the San Pedro River. He was seeing this section of the border wall/fence for the first time. He was surprised it stopped and started at the water's edge. There's a 20 foot gap straddling the river. It's a very small section of the nearly 670 miles of border fence and vehicle barriers build by the Department of Homeland Security but it represents a big argument. Environmentalists had gone to court to stop the barrier from crossing the San Pedro. But the DHS chief, Michael Chertoff suspended a series of environmental laws to build it. Looking North along the river from the barrier, it's evident it allows foot traffic to continue. Water bottles and other litter float in the river about a hundred feet upstream. But ranchers say it has stopped wildlife which used to habitat the area. Ladd says he's seen two mule deer this year whereas in the past, it would be in the dozens....

Kansas producers at odds with Ag Department memo

The Agriculture Department has backed away from a memo that would have required Kansas farmers to register their premises with state and federal agencies. But a week after the USDA backed away from the mandatory requirement, the state animal health department still had not been notified. "I have not heard anything official," said George Teagarden, the state's livestock commissioner. Teagarden's office is responsible for animal diseases and welfare, as well as the premise registration program sponsored by both the state and federal government. Both programs, however, are supposed to be voluntary. When it authorized the state's registration program, the Kansas Legislature mandated it remain voluntary. In Kansas, response to the program has been lukewarm, with only about 6,000 producers registering premises out of the nearly 37,000 known to exist. Premises eligible range from locations where only a few cattle are housed, such as in the case of a 4-H program, on up to a locations where thousands are based....

NCBA names Roberts as CEO

Forest L. Roberts, who has been involved in beef products in the animal health industry for more than 15 years, has been named chief executive officer of the National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. (NCBA), according to an announcement this weekend. Roberts, 42, succeeds Terry Stokes and will begin his new position Jan. 20 in time for this year's Annual Cattle Convention & Trade Show and NCBA's annual business meeting Jan. 28-31. Roberts grew up on a family-owned livestock operation in Uvalde, Texas, that included a retail meat market for locally grown, corn-fed beef and pork. He holds a bachelor's degree in animal science from Texas A&M University and a master's degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina. He has held several marketing and sales positions for animal health companies, beginning with Upjohn Animal Health in 1992 and then with its two successor companies, Pharmacia Animal Health and Pfizer Animal Health. He joined Elanco Animal Health in 2004, where he has been manager of the beef business. He was one of more than 70 applicants for the CEO position and one of two recommended by a producer search committee to NCBA's officers, according to the announcement....

Rambles on the frontier

In 1928, retired judge O. W. Williams of Ft. Stockton, Texas wrote down recollections of his life on the New Mexico frontier 50 years before. They provide a glimpse into the activity in two interesting mining camps: Carbonateville and Shakespeare. Williams graduated from Harvard Law School in 1876. But upon developing lung trouble, his doctor sent him to the arid Southwest to recover. Landing in Dallas, he found that place already overstocked with lawyers. So he turned his interest to mining speculation. Hearing of a new boom in Leadville, Colorado, he enlisted the company of several friends. One of the men was J. W. Bell, an ex-Texas Ranger. Commented Williams long afterward: "For Bell the fates here began to spin a thread of life with an evil ending. He was killed by Billy the Kid at the Lincoln County Courthouse two years later."...His return to New Mexico the following spring was made by lurching stagecoach, via Ft. Worth, San Angelo, Ft. Stockton and El Paso. At the latter place he stopped over briefly at an adobe hotel next to the stage corral. El Pasoans were then much excited over the approach of two railroads. Williams declares with astonishment that downtown property was selling "at the exorbitant price of $100 a lot." Continuing into New Mexico, Williams changed coaches at Mesilla for Shakespeare. The passengers were all frightened with dire warnings of Apache attack. Half way to Ft. Cummings (above present Deming), they encountered dead oxen and burned out freight wagons. A little beyond was a curious sight: stamped envelopes stuck to the tops of dry yucca stems, leading in a straight line across the desert....

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

A glance back over my shoulder

Julie Carter

Sometimes looking back can help us gain wisdom for looking ahead. Of course, Lot's wife might disagree with that, but so far, I'm still in the "gaining wisdom" phase of life.

Every year, if we are still breathing, we are gifted with this change of the calendar from the old year to a new one, from a fast-paced, crowded, busy holiday season to a quiet, chilled January with, usually, nothing overly remarkable on the calendar.

There has been a long-standing saying around this outfit about this time of year. It goes something along the lines of, "We'll just get this year over with so we can start on next year."

Putting up a new calendar with a new number seems to instill hope in the masses. It offers a new lease on life when we promise ourselves to do better, be better people and live life a little better than we did before.

Any reason for improvement is a good one, but I'm not sure why we wait until January. Could we possibly work up that much steam on a daily, weekly or monthly basis all year long? I know we don't, but I don't know why we don't.

One thought is that when we give that glance behind us in the short or long term, we tend to recall the best of what happened. Humanly, we want more of that and less of what we didn't enjoy. In natural progression, we then determine that the imminent future should be more of what felt good and produced good results.

We let the sorrows be healed by the distance placed in the marking of the days, giving credence to the saying that "time heals all things." The passing of time brings a natural erosion to the negatives.

In retrospect, this past year for me was like many that came before it. I didn't burn much daylight without a mission of accomplishment for the many tasks at hand. That's another way of saying I was busier than I thought I wanted to be, but given my talent for making an art out of laziness, it was to my benefit.

By the very nature of my chosen field, deadlines reached out and pulled the near future into my lap on a daily basis and made each week pass as if I was pulling it with a rope, reaching hand over hand and bringing it to me.

Sometimes I could dictate the outcome of those days by my decisions of accomplishment but more often, I simply had to fly by the seat of my pants and live in a reactive moment.

The lesson being, the only control I had over the moment was in my response to it.

That holds true for each of us in a world that seems to be spinning faster than we can pedal.

We have little or no control over anything except us. That brings this missive back to the discussion of the plans for the days ahead.

You know, the ones with a new year number at the end of the date. What has begun within each of us today will be seed for tomorrow - no matter what the calendar says.

May your year be blessed with all that you need and most of what you want.

It’s The Pitts

Share & Share Alike

Lee Pitts

The press release had to be someone’s idea of a sick joke. It couldn’t be true that Montana asked the state of Wyoming if they would share some of their prairie dogs with them. That would be like Colorado, Idaho or Oregon asking California to send them more of their nerds, slackers and know-it-all old hippies!

I checked out the story and it’s a fact that officials in Montana did indeed ask Wyoming Fish and Game if they would let them trap up to 100 of their prairie dogs and “translocate” them to replenish Montana’s “sparse population”. To the surprise of no one, Wyoming said that they’d be more than happy to help Montana out with their shortage of prairie rats. (Prairie “dogs” are much more closely related to rats than they are your average Poodle or Chihuahua.) The good folks in the Cowboy State, which has the highest concentration of prairie dogs of any state, must be laughing their heads off at the prospect of unloading some of their rats on Montana.

In making the magnanimous gesture the Wyoming official said, “We’re the obvious choice as a donor state.”

A donor state! That’s a good one! It makes Wyoming sound like they are donating a kidney or a liver instead of a bunch of rat/dogs.

While I’m happy for Wyoming I feel bad for residents of Montana who will soon be overrun with the darn things. But the story did give me an idea that I call “Your Fair Share”. Under my plan donor states would export their problems to other states and be rid of them! A bankrupt state like California could trap washed up movie stars, nose-ringed rappers and members of their legislature and pawn them off on a state with a sparse population of whackos: like Utah. Colorado could send a gaggle of ponytailed bicycle riders to Florida who would in turn would send blue-haired-retirees, who don’t know how to drive or vote, to Nebraska. Nevada could export their excess of hookers and blackjack dealers to states like Maine who don’t usually see such things. Massachusetts could send something they have way too much of, like members of the Kennedy family, to Kansas.

As good as all that sounds I’m quite sure that the real money will be made in sharing endangered species. After all, it really isn’t fair that the last time I looked just five states in the far west had over 500 endangered species while the entire northeast part of this country had only 39. (Isn’t it funny how so many endangered species prefer to live in the west? I wonder, is it because they are so smart? But if they are so smart, why are they endangered?)

The biggest problem I see with Wyoming sending their rat/dogs to Montana is that western states shouldn’t be inflicting their problems on other western states but should be sharing with the east instead. I’m sure that landowners in the west would be more than happy to sell some spotted owls, three legged salamanders and fairy shrimp to the original 13 colonies. In a spirit of sharing I’m almost positive that corrupt western politicians could be persuaded to sell some of their yellow billed cuckoos and suckers to Washington DC. Although I must admit, sending large-mouthed suckers and cuckoos to Washington DC is a bit redundant. It’s also not fair that rural people in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, California and other western states get to live in fear of mollycoddled bears, mountain lions and wolves. Shouldn’t people in Philadelphia and Boston get to share in the fear of having their kids and pets attacked too?

As we were all told in kindergarten, we must all share and share alike.

I know what you’re thinking: What would states like New York have to share with the rest of us? That’s easy. They currently have an excess of investment bankers, out-of-work stock brokers and corrupt CEO’s who could be sent west. After all, if we’re going to trap lions, wolves cuckoos and suckers we’ll need some bait.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Programs pay farmers to help prairie chickens

A new state-federal program will pay farmland owners in 11 Missouri counties to set aside land as habitat and nesting grounds for prairie chickens, which once roamed the state's prairies in the hundreds of thousands. Iowa, New Mexico, and Texas are among the states making similar offers to their farmers to reverse the decline in prairie chicken habitat, according to the USDA's Farm Service Agency. Prairie chickens, historic residents of Missouri grasslands, are being managed for expansion in parts of the state. But their need for safe nesting sites and room to roam led to a joint effort by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Missouri Department of Conservation to create new habitat from cropland. A long-standing USDA program that pays farmers not to plant crops on lands that are highly erodible or that could serve as a buffer for streams or as wildlife habitat now includes prairie chicken restoration efforts as a goal in Missouri and elsewhere....

A Nevada Town Escapes the Slump, Thanks to Gold

Hundreds of revelers crammed into this small town’s community center on a recent Saturday night to celebrate the marriage of Bianca Hernandez and Jose Lomeli. Throngs danced to Spanish folk music well into the wee hours. Beer, wine and laughter were abundant, and several tables were piled high with gifts. “It’s not just the wedding,” said a friend of the newlyweds, Jesse Dias, 34. “Times are good around here. People are happy.” Good times? Happy people? Hasn’t word of the national economic anxiety and resultant austerity made it to this remote high-desert capital of Lander County, 215 miles east of Reno? Yes, it has, but the economic meltdown in much of the country has been a boon to the county and its 5,000 residents, 4,000 of whom live in the Battle Mountain area. The reason: They mine gold in Lander County, a mineral-rich area that is a major reason Nevada, nicknamed the Silver State, is also the world’s fourth biggest producer of gold. And when the broader economy declines and the value of the dollar fluctuates, people buy gold. At current prices — gold hit $892 an ounce on Monday, its highest price in three months and not that far off its record high of more than $1,000 an ounce in March — places like Battle Mountain hum with good-paying jobs and rising home values, making the financial woes of the rest of the country a distant concern....

Yellowstone Is Shaken by More Quakes

More earthquakes are rattling Yellowstone National Park. The small quakes include three more that measured stronger than magnitude 3.0. The University of Utah Seismic Stations said the strongest was 3.5. Several hundred quakes centered under the northern end of Yellowstone Lake have occurred since Dec. 26. No damage has been reported. Earthquake swarms happen fairly often in Yellowstone. But scientists say it is unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days. Scientists have not concluded what is causing the earthquakes.

NMSU Wins Challenge Rodeo For Third Year In A Row

The New Mexico State University rodeo team overpowered the competition for the third year in a row at the New Mexico College – High School Rodeo Challenge in Farmington Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Both the men’s and the women’s team finished first overall at the rodeo, which is held by the New Mexico Rodeo Council as a contest between college rodeo teams and high school students.

“I am very proud of the team’s accomplishments and am also looking forward to working with some of the top quality high school rodeo athletes I saw during the challenge,” said Jim Dewey Brown, NMSU rodeo coach.

In the breakaway roping event, Brooklyn Chester, of Carlsbad, N.M., won first, with Brittany Striegel, of Aztec, N.M., placing second.

Striegel won first in the goat tying. Kelsi Elkins, also of Aztec, N.M., placed third.

Bay City, Texas, native Trey Bissett won first in the bareback riding. Teammate Dean Daly, of Belen, N.M., won first in the saddlebronc event.

Johnny Salvo, of Horse Springs, N.M., received first in the tie-down roping. Wyatt Althoff, of Gilbert, Ariz., placed second in the steer wrestling.

In the team roping event, header Chance Means, of Cliff, N.M., and heeler Aaron Moyers, of Moriarty, N.M., won first. Tony Steele, of Alamo, Nev., and Casey Felton, of Fallon, Nev., placed second.

For the men’s all-around, Althoff received first, followed by Means. Striegel was named the women’s all-around for the weekend.

MEN’S TEAM

1. 795pts. New Mexico State
2. 445pts. New Mexico Highlands
3. 425pts. High School
4. 310pts. Mesalands
5. 275pts. Eastern New Mexico
6. 205pts. New Mexico Jr. College

WOMEN’S TEAM

1. 778pts. New Mexico State
2. 115pts. New Mexico Jr. College
3. 85pts.. High School
4. 33pts.. New Mexico Highlands

Friday, January 02, 2009

NMSU rodeo team members, new recruits receive scholarships

New recruits and current members of the New Mexico State University rodeo team received numerous scholarships for the 2008-2009 academic year.

To qualify for a scholarship, the student athletes must have a 2.5 GPA or higher, be a full-time student, participate in team activities and compete in National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) rodeos.

“Our goal is to recruit good students and good athletes and continue our winning tradition,” said Frank DuBois, former secretary/director of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Wyatt Althoff, of Gilbert, Ariz., received the L.J. “Curley” McCarey Memorial Scholarship. Althoff is a senior who competes in tie-down roping, team roping and steer wrestling. He also was the men’s all-around champion at the 2008 College National Rodeo Finals (CNFR) in June.

Belen, N.M., native Dean Daly was awarded the G.B. Oliver Jr. Memorial Scholarship. Daly is a junior and competes in saddle bronc, bareback riding and bull riding.

Sophomore Johnny Salvo, of Horse Springs, N.M., received the H.W. “Bud” Eppers Memorial Scholarship. Salvo competes in tie-down roping and team roping, and won the tie-down roping at the CNFR. He also placed second in the men’s rookie standings.

Brittany Striegel, of Aztec, N.M., received the F.F. “Chano” Montoya Memorial Scholarship. Striegel is a senior who competes in barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying.

Kelsi Elkins, also of Aztec, N.M., and a senior, received the New Mexico Federal Lands Council Scholarship. Elkins competes in barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying.

Staci Stanbrough, of Capitan, N.M., was awarded the Charlie Lee Memorial Scholarship. Stanbrough is a junior and competes in barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying.

Moriarty, N.M., native Aaron Moyers received the Bubba Echols Memorial Scholarship. Moyers is a senior and competes in team roping.

JoDan Mirabal, of Grants, N.M., received the Williams Family Ranches Scholarship. Mirabal is a junior and competes in tie-down roping and team roping.

New recruit Jessica Silva, of Tularosa, N.M., was awarded the Pete and Lucy Leach Scholarship. Other new recruits receiving scholarships are Jordan Bassett, of Dewey, Ariz.; Coy Burreal, of Tucson, Ariz.; Steve Hacker, of Battle Mountain, Nev.; Kirby Lewis, of Vernal, Utah; Bryce Runyan, of Silver City, N.M.; Tyler Southern, of Las Cruces, N.M.; Rodee Walraven, of Datil, N.M.; and Dustin Wilson, of Browning, Mont.

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Photo is available at
http://ucommphoto.nmsu.edu/newsphoto/rodeo_scholarships.jpg
CUTLINE: Frank DuBois, front, former secretary/director of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and founder of the Dubois Rodeo Scholarship, with, back row from left, Megan Corey-Albrecht, of Bremerton, Wash., former New Mexico State University rodeo team member, current assistant coach and 2008 national goat tying champion; Wyatt Althoff, of Gilbert, Ariz., scholarship recipient and 2008 national all-around cowboy; and Johnny Salvo, of Horse Springs, N.M., scholarship recipient and 2008 national tie-down champion. (Courtesy photo by Shawna Brown)

Margaret Kovar
Dec. 23, 2008