Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Governor Bill Richardson Announces Support for Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act

Governor Bill Richardson announced his support today for the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Wilderness Act, which was introduced by New Mexico Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall. “I applaud the leadership of Senator Bingaman and Senator Udall who introduced this important legislation to protect many of the most important public lands in Southern New Mexico,” said Governor Richardson. “From the jagged spires of the Organ Mountains to the petroglyphs in Broad Canyon, this bill will protect some of the finest ecosystems and vistas that New Mexico’s Chihuahuan Desert has to offer, while making an important contribution to our country’s wilderness and National Landscape Conservation System.”...read more

Fund will help ranchers deal with Mexican wolves

Federal wildlife officials and the National Fish and Wildlife Federation have signed an agreement establishing a trust fund to help ranchers deal with the impacts of endangered wolves that have been reintroduced in the Southwest. The Mexican Wolf Interdiction Trust Fund, announced Tuesday, aims to alleviate some of the bitter feelings that have been brewing among ranchers and environmentalists since the endangered Mexican gray wolf returned to the region more than a decade ago. Ranchers have long complained about wolves feeding on their cattle and threatening their livelihood, while environmentalists have criticized ranchers' grazing practices and the federal government's management of wolf recovery efforts. "I am confident the interdiction program will not only advance wolf conservation by addressing the economic impacts of our Mexican wolf reintroduction efforts, it will also improve and conserve Arizona's and New Mexico's unique and important landscape and land use practices," Benjamin Tuggle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southwest region director, said in a written statement. Under the interdiction program, trust fund money will compensate ranchers for livestock kills and finance grazing techniques that prevent depredation by wolves. The fund also can pay for range riders to keep the wolves from livestock. Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association, said ranchers support the program because it offers several options. "We think that anything like this is definitely worth the effort," she said. "We're willing to try most anything."...read more

Ranchers Claim Victory in District Court Ruling

For Immediate Release / October 2, 2009
From the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association
P.O. Box 7517 / Albuquerque, New Mexico 87194

For further information, contact: Caren Cowan
505.247.0584 phone / nmcga@nmagriculture.org email

Yesterday’s ruling by United States District Court Judge James O. Browning dismissing a challenge to U.S. Forest Service (USFS) grazing permit renewal from the WildEarth Guardians is welcome news for New Mexico ranchers and will help ranchers across the west.
“Livestock producers across the West are breathing a sigh of relief today,” said Alisa Ogden, New Mexico Cattle Growers Association (NMCGA) President, Loving. “The claims made by the WildEarth Guardians in this case regarding grazing, the livestock industry and the Forest Service were totally without merit, and Judge Browning reinforced that fact with his ruling. This is a huge victory.”
In 2007, the WildEarth Guardians, then known as the Forest Guardians, challenged the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS’s) use of categorical exclusions (CEs) to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for grazing permit renewal in Federal District Court. The case focused on 26 grazing allotments in the Gila National Forest. The NMCGA, the New Mexico Federal Lands Council and the Arizona/New Mexico Coalition of Counties intervened in the case on behalf of the 26 named allotment owners.
“This case was just one more attempt by a radical activist group to eliminate livestock grazing,” Ogden said. “Had it been successful, it would have devastated the livelihoods of the named allotment owners, and the economy of rural Southwestern New Mexico. We are so pleased that the court saw through the claims made by the WildEarth Guardians and ruled on the side of common sense and the will of Congress
NEPA analysis is typically required for major federal actions, but due to policy decisions by the USFS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is now required for the renewal of 10-year USFS grazing permits, Ogden explained. Now, the agency has a tremendous backlog of analysis and paperwork, because they simply are not equipped to conduct such detailed review on every grazing permit that comes up for renewal. Additionally, the WildEarth Guardians and other such groups tie up the agencies with appeals and lawsuits.
“This has created a lot of uncertainty for ranchers who depend on grazing allotments as part of their operations, and for the institutions, like banks, that they work with on a daily basis,” Ogden noted. “Fortunately, we have had strong Congressional support on this issue.”
Starting in 1995, and most recently in March of 2009, language was included in several appropriations bills by former Senator Pete Domenici directing the USFS to use categorical exclusions to keep the current terms and conditions of grazing permits in effect until the agency is able to complete the environmental analysis required for renewal.
“Through no fault of their own, these ranchers were placed in jeopardy, and we appreciate the court’s ruling. The ironic thing is, every lawsuit filed against the agency by groups like the WildEarth Guardians takes more and more time and resources away from environmental analysis and on-the-ground resource management – making the situation even worse.” Although this ruling pertained to these 26 allotments in New Mexico, it will also have a direct influence on the court challenge that Western Watershed Project has mounted to the remaining 138 Forest Service grazing permit renewal decisions on 386 allotments across the remainder of the Western states. That case is now pending in the Northern District Court of California.
“We are extremely pleased that the USFS chose to defend itself and the ranchers on these allotments in the face of this frivolous litigation. We are also extremely proud of the representation that Karen Budd-Falen and the Budd-Falen Law Office, P.C., Cheyenne, Wyoming, protected the industry through participation in the case on behalf of the livestock industry,” she concluded.

IG Finds BLM Employees Had Improper Ties To Greens

The US Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General found that a pair of officials may have had improper dealings with environmental groups, according to a new report. Two people working for the Bureau of Land Management on the agency’s National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) improperly shared budget information before it was finalised and worked on a fact sheet about hunting and fishing for The National Wildlife Federation, a US environmental group. “Our investigative efforts revealed that communication between NLCS and a few specific NGOs in these circumstances gave the appearance of federal employees being less than objective and created the potential for conflicts of interest or violations of law,” the report states. “We also uncovered a general disregard for establishing and maintaining boundaries among the various entities.” The investigation by the Inspector General focused on Elena Daly, director of NLCS and community programs, and Jeff Jarvis, NLCS division chief. Several US lawmakers have called for further investigation...read more

The report states:

We presented our findings to the U.S. Attorney's Office who told us that 18 U.S.C. § 1913, "Lobbying with Appropriated Monies," has no criminal sanctions associated with the it, and thus, declined to prosecute in lieu of administrative action. We are providing this information to you for whatever administrative action you deem appropriate. Please send a written response to this office within 90 days advising us of the results of your review and actions taken.

This occurred under Bush. You can just imagine what's going on now. Go here to read the report.

Global Warming Scandals

One failed resurrection of the old hockey stick prop, one "scientist" using thin data, and one entire research unit destroying what should have been secured are distasteful scandals that couldn’t have erupted at a worst time for global warming alarmists. Cooling temperatures and collapsed economies have already forced this once hot issue of yesteryear to the bottom of anyone’s list of concerns. How embarrassing to have an "official" United Nations Climate Change Science Compendium caught most recently using an unscientific graphic from Wikipedia. The hockey stick graph selected had never been peer-reviewed, so it should not have been used, but it did back the global warming storyline being pushed. A citation to "Hanno 2009" was even made as if the graph had been from a published and peer reviewed work. It wasn’t. Having now been caught out, the United Nations has hurriedly replaced it. Isn’t this all a bit sloppy for science? Then, a UK "scientist" is exposed for having used inexcusably frail studies. This is the same "scientist" whose work has been relied upon to support the Hockey Stick all along. Tree-derived temperature data have long been controversial. Keith Briffa’s Yamal series has been the basis of multiple papers since 1990. But, recent inspection of Briffa’s work has exposed that just a few trees yielded any unusual proxy warming information. Far too few trees and far too-highly-selected trees, at that, were used for any work that could be called science. On top of these two gaffes, it’s been barely a month since an entire government-funded research unit also violated basic scientific principles. It didn’t cherry-pick; it just wholly destroyed original raw data – data behind major studies claiming a global warming crisis. How credible can those studies be now? That’s a scandal. Data are stored and shared for the express purpose of all interested scientists who might work to replicate results. That is the scientific process...read more

Court hears arguments about cross on federal land

The Supreme Court is taking up a long-running legal fight over a cross honoring World War I soldiers that has stood for 75 years on public land in a remote part of California. The cross, on an outcrop known as Sunrise Rock in the Mojave National Preserve, has been covered in plywood for the past several years following federal court rulings that it violates the First Amendment prohibition against government endorsement of religion. The justices were to hear arguments Wednesday in a case the court could use to make an important statement about its view of the separation of church and state. The Obama administration is defending the presence of the cross, which court papers describe as being 5 feet to 8 feet tall. A former National Park Service employee, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued to have the cross removed or covered after the agency refused to allow erection of a Buddhist memorial nearby. Frank Buono describes himself as a practicing Catholic who has no objection to religious symbols, but he took issue with the government's decision to allow the display of only the Christian symbol...read more

Groups ask BLM to suspend streamlined drilling reviews

Fifteen conservation groups are asking the Bureau of Land Management to suspend use of a streamlined approach to regulating oil and gas drilling, pending an internal review of the practice. The groups’ request comes after the Government Accountability Office said in a September report the BLM’s use of what are called categorical exclusions in Colorado and elsewhere “has frequently been out of compliance with both the law and BLM’s guidance.” Meanwhile, the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States has released a position paper detailing its concerns about the report. These include its contention that the GAO ignored frequent violations of the law involving the BLM’s failure to use the exclusions for drilling projects that qualified for them under criteria mandated by Congress. Congress created the exclusions in 2005 to exempt certain drilling-related activities from the new environmental analyses that normally are required...read more

Shaping the Future of America’s Outdoor Recreational Resources

The nation’s parks, public lands, waterways, and other outdoor recreational assets provide the American public a multitude of benefits, but a new study by Resources for the Future concludes that they face major challenges in funding and maintaining the condition of these lands and associated amenities. This wide-ranging study, The State of the Great Outdoors: America's Parks, Public Lands, and Recreation Resources, delves into the status of America’s outdoor resources, the demand for recreation, and the financing of conservation, parks, and open space. It was carried out in conjunction with the Outdoor Resources Review Group, a bipartisan assemblage of public officials, conservation specialists, and recreation professionals that released its own policy recommendations in a July 2009 report. In the new study, the first comprehensive review of outdoor recreation since the late 1980s, RFF Researchers Margaret Walls, Sarah Darley, and Juha Siikamäki highlight notable trends and identify several emerging issues of concern for policymakers. According to the authors, declining government support for parks and other public lands “have led to maintenance backlogs, deteriorating infrastructure, resource degradation, and overall reductions in the quality of the recreational experience in many locations.” These developments have had consequences for some 655 million acres currently managed by federal agencies, including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, and Bureau of Reclamation. Original surveys by the authors revealed that state and local parks are also suffering...read more

Military Progresses on Alternative Fuels

On track to certify its aircraft fleet to use synthetic Fisher-Tropsch (F-T) fuel by 2011, the U.S. Air Force has launched a similar certification effort for hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) biofuels and is now becoming interested in fuels from cellulosic feedstocks. The Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), which buys fuel for the services, has awarded contracts to supply almost 600,000 gallons of renewable jet fuel for testing and certification. "That's an unprecedented amount," says Kim Huntley, DESC commander. Sustainable Oils, Solazyme and Honeywell company UOP will supply 400,000 gallons of fuel to the Air Force and 190,000 to the Navy. Sustainable Oils will use camelina as the feedstock, Solazyme will use algae and UOP will use animal fat, or tallow, supplied by food producer Cargill. All three will use UOP's processing technology...read more

Airline asks passengers to use the toilet before boarding... so they will weigh less and help cut carbon emissions

A Japanese airline has started asking passengers to go to the toilet before boarding in a bid to reduce carbon emissions. All Nippon Airways (ANA) claims that empty bladders mean lighter passengers, a lighter aircraft and thus lower fuel use. Airline staff will be present at boarding gates in terminals to ask passengers waiting to fly to relieve themselves before boarding, The Independent reported. ANA hopes the weight saved will lead to a five-tonne reduction in carbon emissions over the course of 30 days. The airline began the policy on October 1, according to Japan’s NHK television...Read more

Groups Challenge Route in Utah Off-Road Plan

The Forest Service snuck a 220-mile route for off-road vehicle use into a designated trail system for national forest land near Ogden, Utah, four environmental groups say in Federal Court. The Sierra Club and three other groups claim the agency "hastily designated" the Shoshone Trail system for off-road vehicle use in 2007, in what they deem an administrative action to avoid environmental analysis. The travel plan revision added 16 miles of new off-road vehicle trails while disregarding the impacts of 54 miles of unauthorized routes, the lawsuit states. The upland plateau, rugged mountains and canyons in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest are important for wildlife, the groups say, and the snow that covers the trees is the main water source for the neighboring town of Ogden. The Forest Service has allegedly promoted and built facilities for the Shoshone Trail system, actions that require environmental analysis. The revised travel plan failed to consider cumulative effects such as dispersed camping and neglected to analyze mitigation measures or give due consideration to alternatives, the lawsuit claims...read more

Public Citizen Sues Texas Over Greenhouse Gases

Public Citizen opened up a new front today in a battle to toughen the way Texas regulators administer the Clean Air Act, this time trying to force them to regulate greenhouse gases. Texas was already under fire from the EPA, which last month threatened to yank approval for several key aspects of the state's clean-air permitting programs for failing to meet standards of the federal Clean Air Act. Now, the public advocacy group Public Citizen has filed a lawsuit arguing that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is required by state law to consider climate change when approving new coal-fired power plants – and that it is refusing to do so. The lawsuit asks the Travis County District Court to declare that interpretive rules the commission uses to avoid regulating CO2 emissions are unlawful. The group's members are worried about their land and livelihoods as the climate changes, and they need to be heard, the lawsuit says. For example, one member is a pecan farmer near Bay City who would be unable to use the Colorado River to irrigate crops if sea levels rose and saltwater intruded further up the river. Another is a rancher who has noticed species disappearing and ponds that used to freeze staying ice-free all winter. Gulf Coast residents also worry about more intense hurricanes...read more

Texas pulling final plug on corridor

The Texas Department of Transportation is pulling the last plug on the Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's embattled plan to build a toll-road network across the state. The agency said earlier this year it was scaling down the project and dropping the name "Trans-Texas Corridor." Now, transportation officials say it's fully dead. Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the decision in a report posted online Tuesday. The news comes a day after Perry's Republican primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, secured the coveted endorsement of the powerful Texas Farm Bureau — a vocal opponent of the corridor and a group that has been at odds with Perry over eminent domain and private property rights. Farmers and ranchers did not like the corridor plan because of the private land it threatened to take. On Wednesday, transportation officials are expected to announce they have decided against building the TTC-35, a key part of the corridor that was to parallel Interstate 35 between Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio. The development contract with a private company is being terminated. "The reason that's being given for the no-build option is that people don't want it," Meadows said. "They said 'Hell no.' "...read more

House Proposes Bill to Ban Traps in Wildlife Refuges

Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey of New York introduced the bill, calling the continued use of the traps in federally protected wildlife areas "inexcusable" and "shameful." More than half of the country's 550 federal refuges allow steel jaw leg-hold traps, Conibear traps and snares, which will be made illegal under the proposed legislation. Among the traps that fall under the proposed ban are Conibear traps, which are designed to collapse on an animal's spinal column but can catch the chest or pelvis, prolonging the animal's death. If approved, the law would be called the Refuge From Cruel Trapping Act, which Animal Welfare Institute President Cathy Liss called a "critical step toward reducing the suffering inflicted on our nation's wildlife."...read more

E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states. Ms. Smith’s reaction to the virulent strain of E. coli was extreme, but tracing the story of her burger, through interviews and government and corporate records obtained by The New York Times, shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble. Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe. Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say...read more

A lodge's last days: Recession hits Bear Mountain Lodge hard

Bear Mountain Lodge, a local guest lodge owned by the Nature Conservancy, is the latest victim of a struggling economy. After being willed to the conservancy 10 years ago, the lodge will close and the conservancy plans to put the property on the market. The last guests of the lodge will check out today, said Esther Scherf, kitchen manager at the lodge for the past four years. Until mid-June, Scherf said, the lodge served dinner and was popular with locals, as well as guests. But because of budget cuts within the organization, the lodge had to cut back, and the dinners were one of the things to go, along with two other cooks who helped with the operation. The lodge also phased out its staff naturalist position and relied on volunteers to fill in. At its peak, the lodge had about 12 employees during her tenure, Scherf said. Now there are eight, and pretty soon there will just be one to stay on and take care of the place while the property is readied for the market. Terry Sullivan, state director for the Nature Conservancy, which is based in Santa Fe, said the property, which he said encompasses 190 acres, will not be subdivided...read more

Jeff Witte receives honor from National Association of State Departments of Agriculture

Jeff Witte, New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s director of agricultural biosecurity, received the James A. Graham Award for Outstanding Service to Agriculture during the annual meeting of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in Montgomery, Ala., Sept. 20. Witte was honored for his work with the Southwest Border Food Safety and Defense Center (SWBFSDC), which is housed at New Mexico State University, where he has worked closely with various private entities, state and federal agencies, and research institutions on issues related to agriculture and homeland security. “I am extremely honored that Miley Gonzalez, New Mexico’s secretary of agriculture, nominated me, and I am very humbled to receive this award,” Witte said. “We have a great team at NMDA and NMSU, and I have a great team at home. This work could not be accomplished without support from them all.” The award is presented annually to honor an individual who provides outstanding services to agricultural producers. Witte is co-founder and co-director of the Southwest Border Food Safety and Defense Center, a partnership between NMDA and NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has charged the Center with administering all programs related to agro-security in the state...read more

I have no idea what Witte does over there, but I do know this: whatever Witte does he does damn well.

'Rut nuts' hunt for traces of old wagon trail

Members of the Utah chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association got a little taste Saturday of what early travelers experienced as they traversed the Virgin Valley on their way to and from California. The history buffs followed Leo Lyman, a historian who has written two books on the overland trail, or the Southern Route, between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. It is one of the toughest of western trails, Lyman said, and the Virgin Valley section is the most difficult part of the journey. Travelers came from Cedar City to Mountain Meadows, then down the Utah Hill to Beaver Dam, following the winding course of the Virgin River. It was a treacherous route along the river, Lyman told about 30 members of OCTA and half-dozen people from Mesquite. “The wagons crossed the river 12 times between here and Littlefield,” he said, as the group (they call themselves “rut nuts”) looked over the valley about six miles downstream from Bunkerville. “Quicksand was a huge problem, and wagons were lost. There are still wagons under that mud.”...read more

For these cowgirls, rodeo skills come naturally

Eight teams will compete Friday and Saturday in the 2009 Women's Ranch Rodeo Finals at the Bar K Bar Arena at Celebration Centre. "In this competition, it's the luck of the draw," said WRR special agent Billie Franks. "A bad cow can put you down pretty quick in more ways than one." The rodeo will feature two competitions daily, at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. The eight teams, with four women to a team, will compete in calf branding, roping, sorting, doctoring, trailer loading and tie-down/mugging, which involves roping a calf, dogging it down and tying three legs. "Not to take away from the girls who ride barrels and pole bending, but ranch-based competition makes people aware of the ranching end of riding," Franks said. "A lot of the girls who are there are out on the ranch every day. It's a part of our heritage."...read more

Book offers "cowboy" recipes

"Cooking the Cowboy Way" is subtitled "Recipes Inspired by Campfires, Chuck Wagons and Ranch Kitchens." From the rural life in Florida to Texas to Alberta, author-restaurateur and chef Grady Spears has gathered recipes that take hearty ranch and trail fare and kicked them up to a delectable sophistication with the use of authentic ingredients with a twist. Many are the specialties of inns and ranch restaurants around the country. The book is more than a recipe collection; it is a celebration of a life lived in harmony with nature and the outdoors and the active life of ranchers and rural folks, celebrating the myths and realities of what Grady calls "the Cowboy Way." From "Cooking the Cowboy Way" by Grady Spears and June Naylor (Andrews McMeel Publishing, October 2009):...recipes

Song Of The Day #150

Song of The Day #150! That calls for a double dose.

Let's stay with the western swing genre. Anyone who has followed Tommy Duncan's career knows he was a big fan of Jimmie Rodgers. Here he is with Bob Wills and their 1934 recording of Rodger's Mean Mama Blues. We'll follow that up with a good Ocie Stockard fiddle tune Crafton Blues, recorded in 1937 by Jimmie Revard & His Oklahoma Playboys

Both tunes are available on the 4 CD box set Stompin' Singers & Western Swingers: More from the Golden Age of Western Swing.


Tuesday, October 06, 2009

The Other Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis in Global Land Use

Although I’m a climate scientist by training, I worry about this collective fixation on global warming as the mother of all environmental problems. Learning from the research my colleagues and I have done over the past decade, I fear we are neglecting another, equally inconvenient truth: that we now face a global crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization. Our use of land, particularly for agriculture, is absolutely essential to the success of the human race. We depend on agriculture to supply us with food, feed, fiber, and, increasingly, biofuels. Without a highly efficient, productive, and resilient agricultural system, our society would collapse almost overnight. But we are demanding more and more from our global agricultural systems, pushing them to their very limits. Continued population growth (adding more than 70 million people to the world every year), changing dietary preferences (including more meat and dairy consumption), rising energy prices, and increasing needs for bioenergy sources are putting tremendous pressure on the world’s resources. And, if we want any hope of keeping up with these demands, we’ll need to double, perhaps triple, the agricultural production of the planet in the next 30 to 40 years. Meeting these huge new agricultural demands will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. At present, it is completely unclear how (and if) we can do it...read more

Here they come directly after ag with a new "crisis". Guess global warming wasn't getting the job done.

Vegas forges ahead on pipeline plan

The hoopla over the most recent development in the groundwater saga obscures a larger reality. Patricia Mulroy has tackled the groundwater project with far less secrecy than William Mulholland would have used. Still, over the past three years, she has moved to lock in the water she needs for the project with remarkable finesse. The Southern Nevada Water Authority now has at least 37 billion gallons of water lined up for the project, which will span seven valleys on the east side of Nevada, from Coyote Springs Valley to Spring Valley, and Snake Valley on the Nevada-Utah line. "We already have the necessary water rights to go all the way to Spring Valley," says Mulroy. But even as the Water Authority has amassed the permits it needs to fill the pipeline with water, unsettling questions have emerged regarding the project's impacts on desert springs ecosystems. And one of Mulroy's own scientists says her agency is hiding the effects that groundwater pumping will have on the Great Basin...read more

Exile for Non-Believers

The price for speaking out against global warming is exile from your peers, even if you are at the top of your field. What follows is an example of a scientific group that not only stopped a leading researcher from attending a meeting, but then—withoutdiscussing the evidence—applauds the IPCC and recommends urgent policies to reduce greenhouse gases. What has science been reduced to if bear biologists feel they can effectively issue ad hoc recommendations on worldwide energy use? How low have standards sunk if informed opinion is censored, while uninformed opinion is elevated to official policy? If a leading researcher can’t speak his mind without punishment by exile, what chance would any up-and-coming researcher have? As Mitchell Taylor points out “It’s a good way to maintain consensus”. And so it is. But it’s not science...read more (pdf)

Agencies Told To Reduce Emissions

The federal government will require each agency to measure its greenhouse-gas emissions for the first time and set targets to reduce them by 2020, under an executive order signed by President Obama Monday. The measure affects such things as the electricity federal buildings consume and the carbon output of federal workers' commutes. "As the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the federal government can and should lead by example when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, reduce waste, and use environmentally-responsible products and technologies," Obama said in a statement. Each agency must report its 2020 emission targets to the Council on Environmental Quality within 90 days. Administration officials said they could not estimate the federal government's carbon footprint, since it has never been measured before, but the government ranks as the nation's largest energy consumer. It occupies nearly 500,000 buildings, operates more than 600,000 vehicles and employs more than 1.8 million civilian workers...full story

That last sentence doesn't come close to measuring the fed's carbon footprint. Think of all the road and other construction projects funded by the feds. Think of all the private contractors doing work directly for the feds. Think of all the gov't grants, etc.

“Advanced” biofuels lag behind mandate

EISA mandates the sale of 100 million gallons of advanced biofuel in 2009 and 200 million gallons in 2010 (see p. 6 of this presentation). For years, biofuel lobbyists have been telling us that advanced biofuels are “just around the corner.” But, Matt Carr of the Biotechnology Industry Organization estimated last month that in 2010 volumes will, optimistically, reach only 12 million gallons, Leber reports. In a sop to the corn lobby, the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill would suspend for five years the EISA requirement for life-cycle analysis to determine whether biofuels qualify as “advanced” or even as “renewable.” Several life-cycle analyses indicate that corn ethanol produces more greenhouse gases than the gasoline it replaces, once emissions from land use changes are taken into account. The Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill does not contain the five-year hold on life-cycle analysis, and the uncertainty as to which biofuels will qualify under future EPA implementing rules ”chills the investment community,” Carr complains. I’d put the point differently: Strong evidence that corn ethanol is not “climate friendly” jeopardizes the political rents that corn growers and ethanol distillers hoped to extract from climate hysteria. Leber also notes that, “the industry is also concerned about ambiguous language in both the Senate and House versions of the bill that does not clearly exempt the biofuels component of blended petroleum fuels, such as E10 and E85, from an economy-wide carbon cap.” Did you get that? The corn-ethanol lobby invoked climate doom to sell biofuel mandates to Congress and the public. But now they say the centerpiece of regulatory climate policy — the cap in “cap and trade” — should not apply to biofuels, even though biofuels emit CO2, and even though several life-cycle analyses indicate that corn-ethanol is more carbon-intensive than gasoline. One law for me, another for thee!...read more

Ethanol May Not Need Its U.S. Tax Credit, GAO Finds

Congress should consider revising or ending the 45 cent-a-gallon tax credit for blending corn ethanol with gasoline, the Government Accountability Office said. The credit “may no longer be needed to stimulate conventional corn ethanol production because the domestic industry has matured,” GAO said in an Aug. 25 report posted on the investigative agency’s Web site today. Ethanol production “is well understood, and its capacity is already near” a 15 billion gallon-a-year congressional requirement for conventional ethanol, the report found. GAO estimated the tax credit supporting conventional corn ethanol production could cost the U.S. $6.75 billion in lost revenue by 2015, up from $4 billion last year...read more

Senate Democrats Push N.M., Ore. Wilderness Bills

The Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee plans will meet Thursday to review bills that would put land in New Mexico and Oregon off-limits to energy developers and timber companies. S. 1689 (pdf), would designate approximately 250,000 acres in the Organ Mountains of New Mexico as federally protected wilderness and incorporate an additional 100,000 acres as national conservation areas. "The Organ Mountains are the backdrop for one of the most breathtaking scenic views in our state. Doña Ana County residents have been working for years to develop plans that would ensure these views are protected," said Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the bill's sponsor. "I'm very glad that we now have a bill that will do just that, even while ensuring the public continues to have access to this extraordinary space." Not everyone is sure the public would continue to have enough access. Wilderness designations prohibit almost all motorized equipment and transportation on public lands, with some exceptions made to allow ranchers to use motorized vehicles to maintain grazing facilities. But some ranchers are concerned those exceptions are too narrow to get the job done, and instead want to create a new land-management designation that preserves the area from energy development but maintains their access. "Not all lands need to be completely locked up like under the Wilderness Act," said Jerry Schickedanz, chairman of People for Preserving Our Western Heritage, who is scheduled to testify at the hearing. The group is also concerned that restrictions on law enforcement within a wilderness designation would complicate the U.S. Border Patrol's efforts to battle drug cartels. Under the bill, lands necessary for effective law enforcement would be exempted from the designation, according to a fact sheet on Bingaman's Web site...read more

Ag groups unhappy with Senate climate bill

The Senate climate bill is receiving critical reviews from agriculture groups who have powerful friends on Capitol Hill. Groups like The American Farm Bureau and the National Corn Growers Association say one of their biggest problems with the bill is how it addresses carbon offsets, which could be a boon to farmers that switch to farm methods that lower carbon emissions. The ag lobbies say, however, that the Senate bill does not guarantee farm practices would qualify. Rick Krause, a lobbyist at the Farm Bureau, said the Senate bill only encourages that agricultural practices be considered as offsets, whereas the House bill authored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) guarantees they do. The Senate bill “is a step backward from the House bill,” said Krause, whose group also opposed the House measure. Another area of concern is what federal agency should define an offset – the Environmental Protection Agency or the United States Department of Agriculture. The issue held up the House climate bill too. Eventually Waxman and Markey yielded to farm state concerns expressed by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and gave the authority to the USDA. The Senate bill, though, tries to split the difference, giving the president the power to decide which agency will have ultimate authority...read more

The ag groups should be ashamed of themselves. They should oppose this bill on scientific, economic and constitutional grounds, not some bureacratic nitpicking.

Downstream from dam, valley residents and businesses prepare for worst

The Green River snakes out of the Cascades into southwest King County, where wary residents watch it like a fuse. Since a January storm damaged the Howard Hanson Dam, the valley has been readying for the possibility that this thin, lazy stream might swell into that area's worst flood in nearly half a century. Apartment renters have broken leases and paid penalties to move away, while some homeowners have designed scaffolding to hoist possessions to keep them dry. Businesses have trucked in dirt and pallets of sandbags, and stacked 4,300-pound concrete blocks around their doorways. The dramatic and sometimes expensive precautions come amid a recession that already has many businesses and individuals teetering toward financial ruin. And some fear the safeguards won't even work...read more

Raccoons attack woman

A 74-year-old woman is recovering from injuries she received after being attacked by five raccoons at her front door Saturday evening, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said. Gretchen Whitted of Lakeland was seriously injured in the attack that happened about 5:30 p.m. at her home at 1210 Waterford Drive, the sheriff's office said. "She was gashed open around her legs," said Sheriff Grady Judd. "We're not talking about a lot of little bites here. "She was filleted," he said. Whitted heard a noise outside her house and saw five raccoons in her back yard. They then migrated to her front yard. She opened the front door of her home to wave the critters away, but when she did, they attacked her, biting and scratching her legs. Whitted fell and the animals continued to attack her...read more

HT: Outdoor Pressroom

FTC to Regulate Blogging

The Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The FTC said Monday its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final Web guidelines, which had been expected. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could bring fines up to $11,000 per violation. Bloggers or advertisers also could face injunctions and be ordered to reimburse consumers for financial losses stemming from inappropriate product reviews. The commission stopped short of specifying how bloggers must disclose conflicts of interest. Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC's advertising practices division, said the disclosure must be "clear and conspicuous," no matter what form it will take...read more

Ag. secretary: Dairy industry must restructure

The struggling U.S. dairy industry must be restructured to avoid cycles of boom and bust, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday, less than a week after Congress announced a $350 million dairy bailout. Dairy farmers benefited in recent years from higher milk prices and growing demand in countries such as China. But demand fell off with the economic downturn, and wholesale milk prices began plummeting last fall. At the same time, feed and other costs remained high. Many farmers now say they can't sell their milk for what it costs to produce. "I think really what will be next in line is a longer term discussion about whether or not we need to make structural changes in the way the dairy industry is currently operated so we no longer have these rather stark contrasts between boom and bust," Vilsack said during a visit to South Dakota. Vilsack said he would like to get federal aid into farmers' hands as soon as possible...read more

If anything needs to be restructured, its USDA.

Vilsack, give me a holler and I will share with you my restructure plan.

Here's a hint: you'll be able to return to Iowa.

Animal Guardianship and Horses

Imagine that overnight a new state law goes into effect declaring that from now on you do not own your animals but rather you are their "guardian." Does this sound farfetched? Some local communities have already made this change The first legal step on this road has been the addition of "owner-guardian" language to local ordinances, then changing the wording to "guardian" only. One state now has "owner-guardian" as a part of its law, and various federal agencies are using the word “guardian” in conjunction with "owner" whenever the latter appears in their regulations. Animal guardianship advocates suggest that referring to the human-animal relationship as one of guardianship rather than ownership will lead to better animal care. There is little basis for this assertion; an abusive animal owner would likely be an abusive animal "guardian." While local ordinances to date have generally applied only to dogs, cats, and other companion animals, a next step would be to expand such laws to include all domestic animals. With the groundwork in place, guardianship advocates could then move to the state level. "Ownership" and "guardianship" are two distinct legal terms. The first is an expression and protection of the property owner’s legal rights, while the second imposes numerous legal duties and obligations on the guardian. Today as an animal owner, you can decide the animals' care and future as long as you are not abusive, cruel, or neglectful: what to feed or where to house them; which animals to breed them with; what veterinary care to provide; whether to sell them, put them down, or include them in your Will. If the law changes and you no longer own your horses but instead become their "guardian," you will always have to act in the horses’ best interest. As you can well imagine, there will be many times when your horses’ best interests are not yours: euthanizing a horse to avoid a substantial veterinary bill could be prohibited, as could using horses in endeavors like racing and showing. A guardian would be unable to sell horses, as they are no longer property. If you no longer own your horses, property insurance policies might not cover the loss of your horses or injury to them. Expenses, write-offs, and other deductions under federal and state tax laws, which are predicated upon horses being property and assets belonging to their owners, might no longer be available. A successor-guardian could be appointed to sue you on behalf of your horses for not having taken care of them properly, for their injuries, and even for their deaths. The list of legal repercussions that could befall horse owners should the law be changed from ownership to "guardianship" is extensive, and it behooves the horse industry to remain vigilant about pending legislation. The Horse

Study: Horse Whinnies Packed with Information

Through their whinnies, horses convey specific information about their identities, including sex, height, and weight, according to French researchers. Acoustic analyses of whinnies and the reactions of horses to various recorded whinnies also suggest that the vocal calls play an important social role and appear to be unique to each horse. This is the first study of its kind in horses, which are historically considered to be dependent on sight as opposed to hearing for their social communication, the researchers reported...read more

Cowgirl Museum to honor five

Former first lady Laura Bush will receive the Gloria Lupton Tennison Pioneer Award, which recognizes the development of new avenues of community service. Hall of Fame inductee and Idaho native Deborah Copenhaver Fellows barrel-raced professionally before sculpting became her passion, inspired by strong, pioneering women and the challenging life of ranchers. Kay Whittaker Young is also a barrel-racing diva, a five-time National Finals Rodeo finalist and mentor to many women. Today, she trains more than 75 horses annually at her Oklahoma ranch. Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie, fourth-generation owner of the JA Ranch, maintains the 130-year history of the ranch begun by her great-grandfather JohnAdair and the legendary trailblazer Charles Goodnight. A rarity in her day, Mary Jane Colter (1869-1958) was a female architect whose structures were noted for their harmony with nature, a style now known as National Park Service Rustic. With five buildings listed as national historic landmarks, Colter completed over 20 projects for FredHarvey, famous for his Harvey Hotels...read more

Exploring 'Gettysburg of the West'

The plan was to march up the Rio Grande, capture the city of Santa Fe and seize the thousands of rifles, dozens of cannons and other supplies at Fort Union for a campaign that would expand the Confederacy's borders all the way to the California Coast. But Union soldiers stood their ground at a pinch along the Santa Fe Trail known as Glorieta Pass, resulting in a battle that historians often refer to as "the Gettysburg of the West." Until recently, public access to the Civil War battlefield was limited. But earlier this year, the National Park Service opened a new trail that allows visitors to explore the area. The Glorieta Battlefield Trail — more than 2 miles through the wooded and rocky hills southeast of Santa Fe — has been in the planning stages for several years. It's aimed at educating people about the decisive 1862 battle...read more

Calf is branded with 'murder' in 1890s

One of the most intriguing stories to come out of the Texas mountain country is one that took place more than 100 years ago near Marathon. I visited with Carl Williams in Midland the other day and he has done some research on the story. Carl is a former sheriff of Brewster County where the incident occurred and is writing a book about some of the lawmen, crimes and criminals of the Big Bend. In the 1890s the Indians had pretty much left the Big Bend and ranchers had moved in, along with an occasional outlaw or two. There were few lawmen in this vast country and many times disputes were settled with gunfire. Sometimes the shooting incidents went unreported. The range was open then -- no fences. Ranchers helped each other round up cattle. Once the herds were separated, the calves were identified and branded before they were sold. This story took place in the Glass Mountains of northeastern Brewster County during January 1890. A rancher named Henry Harrison Powe owned a small herd and joined other ranchers in rounding up calves that were missed in the fall roundup. During these roundups, owners of large ranches sent representatives to make sure their calves didn't end up with someone else's brand. Powe's young son, R.M. Powe, is the one who has given the most accurate account of what happened that day. He was helping with the roundup of several thousand cattle. His father selected a calf he thought was his and got it ready to brand. But a representative of one of the larger ranches, Finus Gillilland, thought it belonged to his employers, Dubois and Wentworth Ranches. The calf was moved back and forth while each man claimed ownership. Anger turned to rage and finally Powe went to a nearby horse and removed a gun from the saddlebag. He fired a shot at Gilliland, but missed. Gilliland fired back and shot Powe to death. He mounted his horse and fled the scene...Read more

It's All Trew: For goodness sakes: Seems I'm done being rattled

The Trew Ranch has always been a bit "snaky." We have miles of caprock ledges and canyons that provide many homes for snakes. From 1949 to about 1960, we had three resident prairie dog towns located on the ranch. Between the dog towns and the canyons, we would harvest a quart jar full of rattlesnake rattles each summer. No person was ever snakebit that I remember, but cattle, horses and dogs became victims each year. Snake sightings dropped drastically after the demise of the dog towns. The Rana Ranch in New Mexico continued to produce more than its share of rattlers, even though no dog towns were present. A day's ride in summertime always harvested a rattling souvenir or two, some more than 2 inches long as displayed in a memory box in our home. We can tell stories for hours about snakes and snaky experiences. In 2003, I killed two large, almost black diamondback coon-tail rattlers in our backyard at Alanreed. It had been years since we had seen this type of snake, especially in our yards. In 2004, I killed three more, the same size, color and type. I began to suspect they were littermates from a nearby den. We began looking for snake holes each time we left the yards. In 2005, I found three more of the same type and markings, but maybe a little larger and longer than the others...read more

Song Of The Day #149

Today Ranch Radio brings you a western swing tune, Make Up You Mind, by the Saddle Tramps. You'll find it on the multiple artist, 27 track CD Swinging West, Vol. 2


Monday, October 05, 2009

Navajos, Hopi stand in opposition to environmental groups

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., said Wednesday that he strongly supports the Hopi Tribe’s resolution to declare local and national environmental groups unwelcome on Hopi land. “I stand with the Hopi Nation,” President Shirley said. “Unlike ever before, environmental activists and organizations are among the greatest threat to tribal sovereignty, tribal self-determination, and our quest for independence.” “By their actions, environmentalists would have tribes remain dependent on the federal government, and that is not our choice. I want the leaders of all Native American nations to know this is our position, and I would ask for their support of our solidarity with the Hopi Nation in the protection of their sovereignty and self-determination, as well as ours.” On Monday, the Hopi Tribal Council unanimously approved a resolution that stated environmentalists have worked to deprive the tribe of markets for its coal resources and the revenue it brings to sustain governmental services, provide jobs for Hopis, and secure the survival of Hopi culture and tradition. As a result, the Hopi Council stated that the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Grand Canyon Trust and organizations affiliated with them are no longer welcome on Hopi land...read more

The Biggest Flaw in Cap-And-Trade? Follow the Power Lines.

The problem goes well beyond energy recycling. Right now, Congress is crafting legislation to curb U.S. greenhouse gases in order to avert a climate catastrophe. The centerpiece of that bill is a cap-and-trade system that would place an economy-wide limit on carbon-dioxide emissions and let companies trade permits among themselves--in essence, letting the free market decide how best to make cuts. But the electricity sector, which is responsible for roughly 40 percent of the country’s emissions, is anything but free or flexible. Instead, it’s governed by a bewildering patchwork of regulations that depress innovation, thwart efficiency improvements, and hinder the adoption of cleaner forms of energy. That means our best efforts to solve the climate crisis could fall short, unless we revamp the rules that shape the way we get electricity. If health care reform seems nightmarish, just wait for the fight over the grid. To grasp why we have the system we do, you have to travel back to the 1920s. At the time, the U.S. electric industry was dominated by just 16 large "power trusts" that controlled 85 percent of the nation’s electricity. The trusts were infamous for charging bloated rates and providing uneven service. Consumer protections were unheard of. "Nothing like this gigantic monopoly has ever appeared in the history of the world," fumed Gifford Pinchot, who railed against the oligarchs as governor of Pennsylvania in the 1920s and ’30s...read more

Court orders government to pay for water losses

The federal government must compensate two regional water authorities for water diverted to preserve the environment, a federal appeals court ruled this week in a landmark decision that could open the floodgates for agencies who contend the government is taking water from them for fish. After a 16-year legal battle, the 2-1 decision came down as California is coping with a drought and new environmental rules that are cutting into the water supplies of farmers and cities across the state. The ruling appears to create an opening for San Joaquin Valley farm districts that are lashing out at environmental regulations to seek payment for water lost to environmental needs. Whether the districts are entitled to recover damages from the government will depend on language in their water contracts, why specifically water was not delivered and issues beyond the scope of the decision handed down this week, lawyers said. The ruling, by the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Federal Circuit, appears to be the first in which an appeals court has concluded the government has breached a water contract when water is diverted from contractors to environmental needs...read more

Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish

Our oceans have been the victims of a giant Ponzi scheme, waged with Bernie Madoff–like callousness by the world’s fisheries. Beginning in the 1950s, as their operations became increasingly industrialized--with onboard refrigeration, acoustic fish-finders, and, later, GPS--they first depleted stocks of cod, hake, flounder, sole, and halibut in the Northern Hemisphere. As those stocks disappeared, the fleets moved southward, to the coasts of developing nations and, ultimately, all the way to the shores of Antarctica, searching for icefishes and rockcods, and, more recently, for small, shrimplike krill. The scheme was carried out by nothing less than a fishing-industrial complex--an alliance of corporate fishing fleets, lobbyists, parliamentary representatives, and fisheries economists. By hiding behind the romantic image of the small-scale, independent fisherman, they secured political influence and government subsidies far in excess of what would be expected, given their minuscule contribution to the GDP of advanced economies...Beginning in the early 1980s, the United States, which had not traditionally been much of a fishing country, began heavily subsidizing U.S. fleets, producing its own fishing-industrial complex, dominated by large processors and retail chains. Today, governments provide nearly $30 billion in subsidies each year--about one-third of the value of the global catch--that keep fisheries going, even when they have overexploited their resource base. As a result, there are between two and four times as many boats as the annual catch requires, and yet, the funds to “build capacity” keep coming...read more

In Search of Wildlife-friendly Biofuels: Could Native Prairie Plants Be the Answer

When society jumps on a bandwagon, even for a good cause, there may be unintended consequences. The unintended consequence of crop-based biofuels may be the loss of wildlife habitat, particularly that of the birds who call this country’s grasslands home, say researchers from Michigan Technological University and The Nature Conservancy. In a paper published in the latest issue of the journal BioScience, David Flaspohler, Joseph Fargione and colleagues analyze the impacts on wildlife of the burgeoning conversion of grasslands to corn for ethanol production is posing a very real threat to the wildlife whose habitat is being transformed. One potential solution: Use diverse native prairie plants to produce bioenergy instead of a single agricultural crop like corn. The rapidly growing demand for corn ethanol, fueled by a government mandate to produce 136 billion liters of biofuel by 2022—more than 740 percent more than was produced in 2006—and federal subsidies to farmers to grow corn, is causing a land-use change on a scale not seen since virgin prairies were plowed and enormous swaths of the country’s forests were first cut down to grow food crops, the researchers say. “Bioenergy is the most land-intensive way to produce energy, so we need to consider the land use implications of our energy policies,” said Fargione, lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy’s North America Region...read more

BLM biologist banned from Canada

Banned from Canada. Not quite what you'd expect from a 64-year-old fish biologist based here with the Bureau of Land Management. But if he happens to be Joe Kelly -- indicted anti-war activist better known in 1970 as one of the Seattle Seven -- high-tech databases have caught up with his past. One evening this summer, Kelly says, he was told to turn around at the border, after nearly four decades of being waved through into Canada. Nothing personal, but the Canadian government doesn't mess around about turning away people who've been convicted of a crime, even really old crimes. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, both the U.S. and Canada have used ever-expanding criminal databases that they share with each other. For Americans crossing into Canada, the databases have snared not only Joe Kelly, but plenty of guys (and it's mostly guys) who got themselves a DUI in their younger days and now are turned back at the border in front of their wives and kids...read more

BLM employee faces corruption charges

A former U.S. Bureau of Land Management employee is facing charges in a public corruption case involving an alleged scheme to defraud the federal agency by steering contracts to his son. The U.S. Attorney's office said a federal grand jury has indicted 57-year-old Luis Ramirez of Medford on charges of wire fraud, personal financial conflict of interest and making of a false tax return statement. Federal prosecutors say Ramirez had private contractors subcontract their work to his son while Ramirez was the BLM representative responsible for approving work and submitting invoices to BLM for payment to the contractors...read more

Idaho again wants to land choppers in wilderness

Idaho again wants permission to land helicopters in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness to dart wolves and outfit them with radio collars. The U.S. Forest Service resisted a similar request in 2006 to allow choppers into the federally protected wilderness outside of established airstrips. That didn't stop the Idaho Department of Fish and Game from landing a helicopter in the wilderness without federal permission after darting a wolf on April 12, 2009, when it was still considered an endangered species. Federal officials labeled the landing "an incursion." Environmental groups have argued that such landings disrupt the pristine wilderness. They also fear information from tranquilizing and collaring wolves here could lead to more-aggressive wolf killing across Idaho. Idaho Department of Fish and Game wildlife managers insist trapping wilderness wolves on foot has been only marginally successful. By combining wolf-collaring missions with helicopter big game counts that occur every winter, they hope to more successfully track packs that roam some of the nation's most-remote territory. "We don't even land, really. We put a toe in. It takes about 15 minutes, once you've got a dart in them," Deputy Fish and Game Director Jim Unsworth said. "We do believe we have the legal authority" even without permission, Unsworth said Friday. "The reason we want to work with the Forest Service is, because we're partners and we'd like to do things within their process, if we can." His latest plan calls for choppers to touch down up to 20 times in the 2.4-million-acre area to collar up to 12 wolves...read more

Bill would put Roan lease areas in wilderness

Draft legislation by a Denver congresswoman for new Colorado wilderness areas could trigger debate about whether wilderness and drilling can exist side by side on the Roan Plateau near Rifle. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat, included the Roan Plateau in legislation that she released last week for discussion purposes. Her plan would create 34 wilderness areas covering 890,000 acres. The proposal includes more than 40,000 acres encompassing much of the 55,000 acres that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management leased last year for oil and gas development on and around the Roan Plateau top. Federal wilderness is off-limits to activities such as vehicle use and energy development. Spokesman Kristofer Eisenla said DeGette’s proposal would designate wilderness in valleys and cliff areas, whereas many of the proposed drilling locations are just off roads that follow the tops of ridgelines. “Feasibly, they could probably coexist together,” Eisenla said...read more

Has methane drilling left us high and dry?

It took two decades to pump about 174 billion gallons of water out of the Powder River Basin. Until now, those numbers have been speculative, but a new report by the Wyoming Geological Survey shows the amount of water actually pumped out of Powder River Basin aquifers since coal-bed methane drilling started. The report has not been analyzed yet, but will give regulatory agencies an idea of the effects of a decade of intense coal-bed natural gas development in the Powder River Basin. The Geological Survey’s Keith Clarey puts it in perspective. Clarey, who authored the new report on coal-bed methane water drawdown, says the water pumped from 1993 to 2006 would roughly fill Lake DeSmet twice. Clarey compiled information collected from 111 monitoring wells — some starting as early as 1993; but all were studied through 2006. Some of the monitoring wells were placed in coal aquifers and some were placed in sand aquifers. The purpose was to find out what effect coal-bed natural gas production is having on aquifer levels in the basin — the same aquifers many communities and ranchers get their water from. He appears to have come up with a glass-half-empty, glass-half-full answer. “The data are showing there are hundreds of feet of drawdown in some of the water monitoring wells, but it is a complex issue because some of the wells are showing increases in water levels,” Clarey said. The impact of that drawdown differs depending on who you ask...read more

A Utah town's love of Indian artifacts backfires

Their two worlds collided this summer when 150 federal agents swooped into the region, arresting 26 people at gunpoint and charging them with looting Indian graves and stealing priceless archaeological treasures from public and tribal lands. Seventeen of those arrested, most of them handcuffed and shackled, were from Blanding, including some of the town's most prominent citizens: Harold Lyman, 78, grandson of the pioneering Mormon family that founded the town. David Lacy, 55, high school math teacher and brother of the county sheriff. And 60-year-old Jim Redd, along with his wife and adult daughter. The next day, the doctor drove to a pond on his property and killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. Another defendant, from Santa Fe, N.M., shot himself a week later. The suicides horrified this town of about 4,000 with many bitterly blaming the government. More than a thousand people attended Redd's funeral, even as the mayor denounced the FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents as "storm troopers" and the sheriff called for a formal investigation. For many, the recriminations and grief masked more complicated questions — questions that have dogged the town for decades. "I'm not against them enforcing the laws, but why do they have to kill us at the same time," says Austin Lyman, a case worker at the senior center, who has vehement opinions about the raids, and his own unique way of expressing them: "Like Jackals from hell they came,
With bullet proof vests and guns, They came to arrest old men." Lyman, a burly, ruddy-faced man of 62, penned "Paradise Has Been Raided Again" on June 10, the day of the raids. He reads it aloud, eyes burning, voice cracking with emotion...read more

On The Range of Piñon Canyon: Property rights or jobs?

Their land is more than property for cattle ranchers in southern Colorado. It’s their way of life. These modern-day cowboys work land passed from one generation to the next with the hope that the weather will hold, that strong grass will grow and that their cattle will make it to market. It’s not an easy life. Today’s ranchers face many of the same challenges that confronted their ancestors 100 years ago. Fences still need mending, horses still need shoeing and cattle must be fed — no matter whether there’s a blizzard or a heat wave. However, the southern Colorado ranchers whose land is adjacent to Fort Carson’s U.S. Army training site in Piñon Canyon face a unique challenge. In the 1980s, the Army built what is known today as the Piñon Canyon Maneuvering Site. The Army uses the 235,000 acres it now owns a few months out of the year to build trenches so that soldiers in tanks can train on the land. In order to secure the current site, the Army implemented the largest use of eminent domain against U.S citizens in the nation’s history. Not surprisingly, the land grab left a bad taste with the ranchers who remained. Owners of the land that surrounds the current training site support the military and believe their patriotism runs more than skin deep. But they are finding themselves at odds with the Army, which, over the past few years, has made several attempts to condemn more land to enable expansion of the maneuvering site. The exact amount of land the Army wants for expansion is among debate...read more

Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton looking for home after $6m auction fails

Auctioneers had hoped bids would top $6 million (£3.8 million) but the highest offer was only $3.7 million (£2.3 million). Samson was the star attraction in a huge dinosaur auction at the Venetian hotel and casino. About 50 other lots, including a duck-billed dinosaur, a pair of Einiosaurus skeletons and a 5-metre long fossilised fish, fetched $1.76 million (£1.1 million). Samson consists of 170 fossilised bones discovered 17 years ago in South Dakota. They represent more than half the skeleton of a 12-metre long, 7.5-ton dinosaur that lived 66 million years ago. A similar T. rex fossil nicknamed Sue sold for $8.3 million (£5.2million) in 1997...read more

Rancher loses sheep to coyotes, but law limits him fighting back

In full camouflage gear, a double-barrel shotgun across his lap, Jack Dandridge waited among the tall weeds in the gathering darkness for the killers to appear. It wasn't long before he saw a silhouette move silently away from the trees and trot toward the open field under the massive power transmission lines. Dandridge drew a bead with the 16-gauge but held his fire. As much as he itched to pull the trigger, to avenge his loss, doing so would be against the law — the killer wasn't on his property. He watched as his chance slipped away. Weeks later, as Dandridge and his wife, Marian, slept in their home on Dry Creek Ranch Road, a marauder returned. The next morning, they found the bloody evidence. One victim lay dead, huge chunks of flesh torn from its left haunch. A second staggered from shock and gaping wounds. It has been like this for more than two years, and the Dandridges are sick of it. Coyotes have become more prevalent in Florida in recent years, moving south from the Panhandle and showing up even in urban beach communities. For some people, they evoke an exotic charm, a taste of the Old West in the Sunshine State. Such allure is lost on ranchers like the Dandridges. On Wednesday, standing next to a deep hole he had just dug to bury his slaughtered 120-pound ewe, Dandridge saw his livelihood under attack. "This is our money going into the ground," he said...read more

Groups petition feds to regulate feedlots under Clean Air Act

The Humane Society of the United States and other groups are petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating confined-animal feeding operations under the Clean Air Act. The groups submitted the 69-page petition late last month asking that emissions of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and other gases be curbed. EPA spokesman Dave Ryan said the agency will review the petition and respond within 120 days. The EPA is wrapping up a study of emissions at 24 U.S. feedlots, but doesn't have enough information yet to decide whether confined-animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, need more regulation. "We really do not have a good handle on CAFO emissions," Ryan told the Twin Falls newspaper, The Times-News, in a story published Friday. He said that when the study is released next year, it should give the agency more information about how much pollution feedlots produce. The petition included past EPA figures plus information from United Nations reports about feedlots...read more

Census shows more Americans trying their hand at raising crops, livestock on ‘hobby farms’

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent farm census shows that while the nation’s largest farms keep getting larger, a growing number of small farms also are sprouting across the nation. February’s census report found that the number of farms under 50 acres soared nearly 15 percent between 2002 and 2007 to about 853,000 nationwide. Farms under 10 acres grew even more, with their numbers rising about 30 percent to 232,000. Nearly 300,000 new farms began production since the last census in 2002, and they tended to have fewer acres, lower sales and younger operators who also work off-farm, said Ginger Harris, a demographer with National Agricultural Statistics Service, a branch of the USDA. Although the census numbers show a growing interest in small farms, she said farmers weren’t asked their motives for starting their farms or why farming isn’t their primary occupation...read more

Congress gives $5.3 million to National Animal ID

A conference committee in Congress has decided to fund the controversial National Animal Identification System for another year to the tune of $5.3 million. That will be a significant reduction from previous years, but does not placate opponents of the still floundering, five-year-old program. “We’re disappointed with the decision,” said Bill Bullard, the chief executive of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund. R-CALF USA, ICON and 91 other groups asked Congress to eliminate the funds. The Senate Appropriations Committee had approved $14.6 million for the NAIS program, the amount requested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the House allocated nothing. The appropriation is part of the Agriculture appropriations bill. Bullard said the $5.3 million could shore up the program where it is less expensive and cumbersome, such as in factory-style hog, poultry and cattle feeding operations. Congress appropriated $142 million for animal identification since it began in 2004. The USDA has registered only 35 percent of animal premises. Last year, the USDA got $14.2 million to run the program, but registrations increased by only three percent...read more

Cattle auctions on the decline

A half a century ago, cattle auctions were a booming business in the Big Country. With sales somewhere every day of the week, auctions were thriving. Each week, auction arena stands would fill up with ranchers eager to buy and sell livestock. But today when the dust settles, the auctioneer’s voice fades and the last trailer is loaded, things are quieter at most area auctions. “We have lost cattle auctions all over, and over time the number of cattle have declined in the U.S.,” said David Anderson an extension economist from Texas A&M. “They (auction barns) make a living by selling cattle and as the total number of cattle decline, there are fewer to go around and it makes it tougher to stay open.” As the number of ranchers decreases, so does the number of cattle auctions. Haskell, Brownwood and Ranger have all lost auctions in recent times. The auctions that remain have trimmed their operations. “People are getting older, and kids are moving to the city and not taking over the family business,” said Randy Carson, who bought Abilene Auction in 2001 with his son Cody. Carson, 60, started working at the local cattle auction when he was just 17. He gets a nostalgic twinkle in his eyes when he remembers the good old days — 30 or 40 years ago. “Back then we had sales Monday, Tuesday and Thursday,” Carson remembered. “The farmers owned cattle and that is just not the case anymore.” And, back then, the bankers wanted three crops, wheat, cotton and cattle...read more

Lone-wolf rancher is 'one of a kind'

She lives alone at the end of a gated four-wheel-drive road in the Arizona outback, beyond civilization, nestled in a valley beside a stream guarded by cottonwoods. Mountains and mesas rise on all sides of the LF Ranch west of Payson, covered with juniper and prickly pear, catclaw and oak. The Arizona Trail runs through her property, bringing occasional backpackers. When a stranger wanders past her door, she greets him with an iron handshake and kind smile: "Maryann Pratt," she says. "I run this place." More than 100 cattle range over 37,000 acres of Tonto National Forest grazing lease, the Bull Springs Allotment. It's a three-day ride from one end of her spread to the other, 52 sections in all, full of Western lore and Indian ruins. Pratt works the ranch mostly alone, camping in winter storms, mending 70 miles of barbed-wire fence, hauling salt blocks by mule through sweltering summers. A floppy old hat tops off an outfit of baggy jeans and faded paisley shirt, blending into Arizona lore like camouflage. On clear nights at the ranch house, she sleeps outside under the stars rather than in a bed. Spend a little time at the LF Ranch and it becomes clear that Pratt is not your prototypical cowpoke but a modern-day pragmatist with cow dung on her boots. She runs her 57-square-mile spread with solar power and computers, hunting dogs and a shotgun...read more

On the edge of common sense: Cowboy answers to your love questions

This cowboy advice column is inspired by the Ventura County Star. Three cowboys answer questions about love and life. DEAR TERRIFIC TRIO, I've just fallen in love with a 38-year-old bottle blonde who shoots a mean game of snooker and can chug a 16-ounce bottle of Red Dog Ale in 30 seconds! Do you believe in love at first sight? Or should I wait till tomorrow morning to pop the question? Signed, THUNDERSTRUCK, texting in the men's room @ Walter's Crescendo Lounge DEAR THUNDER, Ask her quick before the Butazoline and Acepromazine wear off and she realizes how stupid you are. DEAR TRIGEMINAL TRIPODS, My husband has come into some inheritance. We need food for the twins and a refrigerator that works, but he wants to invest in a four-wheeler to pull his roping dummy at the funeral in honor of his dead uncle. Am I being selfish? Signed, TIMOROUS IN TULARE DEAR TIMOROUS, Make sure he gets one with four-wheel drive and the beer cooler attachment. DEAR TRUCULENT TAPA- DERAS, My live-in boyfriend is starting to make eyes at other women. The other love of my life is a hard-to-handle Arabian stallion. I realize I can't afford them both. What should I do? Signed, PUZZLED IN PIOCHE DEAR PUZZLED, Flip a coin and geld the one you keep...read more

Song Of The Day #148

Let's get your blood flowin' this Monday morning with an instrumental by the great guitar picker Dan Crary. Here he is flatpicking Cotton Patch Rag. You can find it on his 10 track CD Guitar.


Sunday, October 04, 2009

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Turning 16 - Life for the cowboy-kid is still good

By Julie Carter

He was only 6 years old when he first hit newsprint; a hazard of having a mother who is a writer. The story titled "Life doesn't get any better than this" told of the country-boy things that filled his days.

Like most ranch kids, this young cowboy's days (when not in kindergarten) were peppered with activities involving dogs, horses, cattle and miles in a feed pickup or in the shop learning guy stuff like welding and fixing broken vehicles.

The remoteness of the ranch sheltered him from the cutting edge of the "normal" '90s kid-life.

Power Rangers and Nintendo were the rage and he knew nothing of either.

His TV viewing left him thinking that the Lone Ranger and Scooby Doo were suitable heroes; no matter that they'd already been heroes to four decades of kids.

He was 7 before he ever saw a movie in a theater (Star Wars) and not far into it, he asked if he could change the channel and watch Scooby Doo.

He entertained himself daily by hooking up his red wagon to his bicycle with some well-engineered baling wire and loading up a hound pup to teach the pup to "trailer."

He would ride at breakneck bicycle speeds, the pup's ears flapping Snoopy-style, from the upper side of ranch headquarters to the bottom where the road curved to the barn.

It was here he'd make a hard turn-around, usually rolling the wagon and launching the puppy, but without missing a beat, he'd set everything back aright and get rolling again.

He began riding in the pasture during cattle workings at the age of 3 and by the time he was 6 his lack of fear kept my teeth clenched.

He learned to weld and use the cutting torch by first cutting his name, "LANE," in a metal plate and then wanted it mounted on the ranch entrance gate.

One day he leaned on his elbows on my desk as I was writing, hands under his chin, and very seriously said, "Mom, do you think it's time for a raise in my alangance?"
"Alangance?" I asked. "What is that?"

"You know," he said gesturing with his hand. "Money."

Ah, he meant allowance. However, he didn't get an allowance so I wasn't sure why he thought he needed a raise.

I quickly listed for him the work required for him to receive an allowance, and he just as quickly lost interest.

He wore only "snap shirts" (his name for Western shirts) and was al-ways geared up for play with toy guns, a worn out straw hat, gloves and usually a bugle and an American flag. Those old Westerns on TV will show a guy how to dress.

His favorite was the one I made for him out of flag-printed fabric that he selected. He called it his United States of America shirt.

A few things have changed but as many have not.

He's much larger now as he turns that magic age of teenage drivers, standing 6 foot 3 inches and weighing in like a line-backer.

He owns and operates most of the teen gadgets from iPods to cell phones and can text while he talks and runs a Google search on his laptop computer.

He still loves the American flag and still loves "snap shirts."

The old Westerns on TV are still his favorites and his excitement is in hunting, riding, roping and dinner.

Girls have hit his radar and his dreams are now of bigger toys, like a pickup to call his own and giving a worthy name to his new horse.

He can make a hand on the flanking crew at the brandings and isn't afraid to spend countless hours on his own at the ranch doing whatever needs done.

I hope the next 10 years of his life find him as grounded in the reality of what is important as he is now. My work is almost done.

Happy 16th, son.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net.

Song Of The Day #147

Today's Gospel tune is I've Got That Old Time Religion In My Heart by The Wilburn Brothers.


Newly Declassified Files Detail Massive FBI Data-Mining Project

A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store, declassified documents obtained by Wired.com show. Headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, just outside Washington, the FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) maintains a hodgepodge of data sets packed with more than 1.5 billion government and private-sector records about citizens and foreigners, the documents show, bringing the government closer than ever to implementing the “Total Information Awareness” system first dreamed up by the Pentagon in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks. Such a system, if successful, would correlate data from scores of different sources to automatically identify terrorists and other threats before they could strike. The FBI is seeking to quadruple the known staff of the program. But the proposal has long been criticized by privacy groups as ineffective and invasive. Critics say the new documents show that the government is proceeding with the plan in private, and without sufficient oversight. Among the data in its archive, the NSAC houses more than 55,000 entries on customers of the Cendant Hotel chain, now known as Wyndham Worldwide, which includes Ramada Inn, Days Inn, Super 8, Howard Johnson and Hawthorn Suites. The entries are for hotel customers whose names matched those on a long list the FBI provided to the company. Another 730 records come from the rental car company Avis, which used to be owned by Cendant. Those records were derived from a one-time search of Avis’s database against the State Department’s old terrorist watch list...read more

Real Reform for the PATRIOT Act?

George W. Bush may have left D.C., but the vast surveillance machine he spent eight years building via the PATRIOT Act hums merrily along. Whether or not that continues could well be determined today, as the Senate Judiciary Committee meets to mark up legislation renewing a series of PATRIOT Act powers due to expire at the end of the year. Barack Obama's Justice Department has said it's open to "modifications" of the expiring powers -- but some Democratic legislators see an opportunity to revisit and revise the whole architecture of post-9/11 spying law. If history is any guide, press attention will focus overwhelmingly on a proposal to repeal the controversial immunity Congress retroactively granted to telecoms that participated in the National Security Agency's extralegal program of warrantless wiretaps. Far more consequential for the privacy rights of Americans, however, are two surveillance powers that would finally be subject to reasonable limits by the ambitious JUSTICE Act, sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin: National Security Letters and the sweeping wiretap authority granted by the FISA Amendments Act. Today's markup will focus on a far more modest renewal and reform bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and the commission's chair, but civil libertarians are hoping elements of Feingold's more sweeping effort will make it into the text ultimately sent to the full Senate. Of all the vital privacy safeguards Feingold has proposed, the provisions fixing NSLs and the FISA amendments are probably the most important...read more

Big police depts back anti-terror citizen watch

The nation's big city police chiefs are backing an anti-terrorism community watch program to educate people about what behavior is truly suspicious and ought to be reported to police. Police Chief William Bratton of Los Angeles, whose department developed the iWATCH program, calls it the 21st century version of Neighborhood Watch. Using brochures, public service announcements and meetings with community groups, iWATCH is designed to deliver concrete advice on how the public can follow the oft-repeated post-9/11 recommendation: "If you see something, say something." Program materials list nine types of suspicious behavior that should prompt people to call police and 12 kinds of places to look for it. Among the indicators:...read more

The Supreme Court Takes on Guns, Again

It has been only a year and a season since the Supreme Court shook the world of Second Amendment jurisprudence with the historical D.C. v. Heller decision. In that case, the court declared for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms against infringement by the federal government—at least commonly used arms, for self-defense in the home. Heller opened the gates for a flood of new lawsuits by gun-rights friendly attorneys and organizations, most prominently the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation. One of those cases, McDonald v. Chicago, challenging a gun ban in Chicago that's similar in most respects to the D.C. gun laws overturned in Heller, has just been taken up by the Supreme Court. The counsel who will be arguing McDonald before the court in early 2010 is the same man who won Heller, Alan Gura. Although McDonald's challenge to Chicago's laws has so far lost at both the district court level and at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Gura is confident he'll win. The Chicago laws at issue are as significant a violation of a citizen's right to bear arms as were D.C.'s. Chicago residents can't have a gun without registration, can't register handguns, can't register a gun that's already in their possession, and if they miss a yearly deadline to re-register, that weapon becomes forever unregisterable. Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation (with the Illinois State Rifle Association) have pulled together a set of plaintiffs with personal tales of having their quality of life lessened by the gun ban. Following Heller, it might seem clearcut that Chicago's gun control laws should meet the same fate as those in Washington, D.C. So why hasn't it worked out that way? The reason is that the Second Amendment, rare among the fundamental rights laid out in the Bill of Rights, has never been held to apply to actions of any government entity other than a federal one. (Of course, it wasn't even considered to do that until Heller.) In the legal lingo, the Second Amendment has not been "incorporated" against states and localities via the 14th Amendment. By contrast, the First Amendment (Gitlow v. New York), Fourth Amendment (Mapp v. Ohio), and others have been (but not, yet, the Third or Seventh). Furthermore, there is currently some disagreement on this question among different districts of the federal appeals court system...read more

Background reading for Supreme Court’s new 14th/2d Amendment case

Go here for the post. It's filled with informative links.

New York City Primary Voters Reject Gun Grabber

For the second time in two weeks, the citizens of New York City have delivered an unambiguous rebuke to the gun control movement by rejecting David Yassky's bid for Comptroller. Yassky based his campaign largely upon his gun control record. As a staffer to then Congressman Charles Schumer he worked on both the Brady Act and Clinton Gun Ban. His campaign was endorsed by Senator Schumer, the Daily News and the New York Times because of this. Yassky's double-digit loss in the runoff election demonstrates just how far outside the mainstream of society gun control advocates are. A solid majority of Democrat voters in all five boroughs have soundly rejected this candidate and his ideas. [link]

Friday, October 02, 2009

Feds lift ban on 'Jesus' on Capitol Christmas tree

Just one day after WND reported that rules for the 2009 Capitol Christmas Tree program prevented children from submitting decorations with themes such as "Happy Birthday, Jesus" and "Merry Christmas," state and federal officials are confirming the policy has been rescinded. WND's report came after a letter was sent by the Alliance Defense Fund to officials in Arizona who are assembling thousands of ornaments from children for the annual Christmas tree that is erected in front of the White House. The change was confirmed both by officials in Arizona who have a steering committee to run the program and from officials in the office of the Architect of the Capitol, who administer the program in Washington...read more

Builders to Pay $36 Million for Calif. Wildfire Damages to 18,000 Acres

In an unprecedented environmental verdict, a Los Angeles federal jury ruled that two construction companies must pay more than $36.4 million for damages from a 2002 wildfire that burned over 18,000 acres of Angeles National Forest, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. The verdict marks the first time a jury has decided to award damages based on a wildfire's environmental impact. The jury ruled that Texas company CB&I Constructors and the defunct Merco Construction Engineers must pay more than $36.4 million for costs related to a June 2002 wildfire in San Francisquito Canyon that government officials say was caused by hot metal sparks from electric grinders. The companies were building steel reservoirs for a planned community in Santa Clarita. A CB&I employee negligently directed the hot sparks toward a hillside covered in dry brush, while a Merco employee failed to water down the construction site to prevent the fire, the government argued at trial. The verdict, decided in a one-day deliberation, is the largest ever awarded in a federal cost-recovery case relating to firefighting. The jury unanimously determined that CB&I was 65 percent liable and Merco was 35 percent liable...read more

Feds say Utah wilderness bill needs to shrink

The Obama administration on Thursday gently advised the sponsors of a bill to designate 9.4 million acres in Utah as federally protected wilderness to shrink their ambitions. "We suggest an approach that is more geographically focused," Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management, told a House panel at a hearing on the bill. Abbey praised the bill's goal of preserving Utah's famed red rock landscapes and agreed that at least 6.6 million acres covered by the bill have been identified by BLM as containing characteristics associated with wilderness designation. However, he said he couldn't speak to the suitability of the rest of the lands since they hadn't been reviewed by BLM. The agency would want to conduct a review before the passage of any legislation, he said...read more