Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Mustang Lover Roils the Range

Nevada cattle ranchers, having long battled the land's harsh elements, now find themselves up against a new force of nature: Madeleine Pickens. Mrs. Pickens, wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, caused an uproar when she proposed the Bureau of Land Management let her fence off more than 500,000 acres of federal land to create a sanctuary for wild horses near a 14,000-acre ranch she bought in October. Her proposal for the bureau to designate a "mustang monument" on those acres isn't sitting well in Nevada cattle country, where ranchers worry Mrs. Pickens's plan threatens to force them off the range. Nevada's estimated 450,000 cattle graze mostly on federally owned lands in a practice dating from the 19th century. The Elko County Commission voted Nov. 3 to oppose Mrs. Pickens's plan. "What we're worried about is if she locks up ranches all over Nevada," said Commissioner Demar Dahl, a rancher. If the plan went through, "something has got to give, and it will be cattle," said Robin Boies, a 55-year-old local rancher who grazes her cattle on federal land adjacent to her Nevada ranch. Hunters and off-road enthusiasts also object to the plan, saying it could bar them from a popular recreation area to which they have free access now...more

AZ agency backs end to US wolf protection - Will NM follow suit under new Governor?

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission wants federal protection of the Mexican wolf stripped as a way to "break through the gridlock" in the wolf- reintroduction program. The commission voted 4-1 Saturday to support a bill pushed by a group of congressional Republicans that would delist the Mexican wolf as an endangered species, along with all other gray wolves living in the Northern Rockies and elsewhere in this country. State game officials and ranchers say Arizona can do a better job managing the wolf than the federal government. Environmentalists say that without federal protection, the Mexican wolf might not even be around today. In a statement released Monday, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, which carries out game commission policies, said that if the wolf were delisted, the state would become more heavily involved in planning the species' future and would run wolf reintroduction in a "more affordable, efficient and effective manner." Delisting the Mexican wolf would turn its management over to Arizona and New Mexico wildlife agencies and remove the federal ban on killing or harming wolves. Game and Fish said Arizona wolves would continue to be protected through state laws, and that the commission has no plans to let people hunt them...more

It will be interesting to see who Gov. Martinez appoints to the NM Game Commission and what position they take on this issue.

Willl they continue to cower down to the feds, or will they stand up for state jurisdiction?

Plan To Widen Airspace Riles Dakota Ranchers

The northern Great Plains is among the most isolated parts of the country, making it perfect for raising cattle and finding solitude. But it's also an ideal training area for the Air Force, which hopes to expand its flights there. That possibility is a cause for concern for people in both the ranching and aviation industries in the area. At 500 feet overhead, a B-1 bomber at full throttle can sound louder than a rock concert. The noise is above the normal threshold for pain. Stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, B-1 bombers often use the Power River Training Complex, which includes parts of South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. The military is proposing a fourfold expansion of the space, which would then cover more of both Dakotas, and parts of Wyoming and Montana. Ranchers point to more than two dozen court cases where landowners have been compensated for excess aircraft noise. Kammerer says that at the very least, the ranchers should get some consideration. "If you want the overflight and use of this land," he says, "then have the good grace to pay us like you do everybody else, in easements and property damage." This economic issue stretches beyond ranchers. Ray Jilek manages the airport in the town of Spearfish, S.D. The number of flights out of the small airstrip would be cut in half to make way for military training. Jilek says the airport is in the middle of a $15 million expansion project, as the military forms its plan. And all of the sudden they are going to say, 'OK, you've made the investment — but we're only going to let you use it part of the time now,' " he says. The Air Force says there are no plans to pay anyone here for losses...more

The Dept of Defense owns 30 million acres, 32% of which is managed by the Air Force. But it is never enough.

The individuals and small communities involved should get ready as the federal military authorities execute a political "shock and awe" against our own citizens.

Museum director sues feds over probe

The founding director of the Custer Battlefield Museum in Montana said Monday that his constitutional rights were violated when two dozen federal agents raided the museum, his home and other businesses in 2005 and in 2008. Agents, some of whom were armed with automatic weapons, were looking for any evidence that Chris Kortlander was illegally buying and selling American Indian artifacts when they surrounded his property in Garryowen, Mont., in March 2005. Yet, five years have passed and Kortlander has not been charged with a crime. Kortlander's federal lawsuit said his rights to free speech, to bear arms, to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures and nearly a half-dozen other rights were violated in the raids. It targets individual agents — rather than the agencies involved in the raids — as part of what is called a Biven's action. Much like a civil rights case in state court, the rarely used federal legal measure allows private citizens to sue for damages against federal officials for violating their rights. Kortlander's lawsuit, filed Monday in Montana, could open the floodgates for other complaints from artifact dealers and collectors who were dragged into a sweeping federal investigation into looting and grave robbing in the Four Corners region. It led to felony charges against more than two dozen people in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico in June 2009, but at least seven collectors and dealers who were raided in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona as part of the operation were never charged with a crime. Local officials had complained that federal agents were heavy-handed during the raids. And since then, suicide has claimed the government's informant and two defendants, the prehistoric Indian artifact market has bottomed out, and some collectors fear they will be targeted despite having legal business operations...more

2 more rare red foxes confirmed in Sierra Nevada

Federal wildlife biologists have confirmed sightings of two more Sierra Nevada red foxes that once were thought to be extinct. Scientists believe the foxes are related to another that was photographed this summer near Yosemite National Park. More importantly, they say, DNA samples show enough diversity in the Sierra Nevada red foxes to suggest a "fairly strong population" of the animals may secretly be doing quite well in the rugged mountains about 90 miles south of Reno. The first confirmed sighting of the subspecies in two decades came in August when a remote camera captured the image of a female fox in the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest near Sonora Pass. Forest Service officials confirmed Friday that two more foxes — one male and one female — were photographed in September in the neighboring Stanislaus National Forest, about 4 miles from the original. That indicates there is the "continued persistence of a genetically unique population of Sierra Nevada red fox in the southern Sierra Nevada, rather than a single individual," the agency said...more

BLM Releases Report on Handling of Animals at Wild Horse Gathers

The Bureau of Land Management has released a report prepared by four independent, credentialed equine professionals concerning the care and handling of wild horses and burros at three major gathers or round-ups held over the summer. The full report, accessible at the BLM's national website www.blm.gov, made several observations and findings, including the observation that, in general, "horses did not exhibit undue stress or show signs of extreme sweating or duress due to the helicopter portion of the gather, maintaining a trot or canter gait only as they entered the wings of the trap. Rather, horses showed more anxiety once they were closed in the pens in close quarters; however, given time to settle, most of the horses engaged in normal behavior...."...more

Crash that killed US Forest Service firefighters revives concerns about government aircraft

An investigation into the crash of a U.S. Forest Service firefighting helicopter that killed nine people two years ago has revived concerns about the safety of government aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board meets Tuesday to determine the cause of the Aug. 5, 2008, crash near Weaverville, Calif., and make safety recommendations. The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter was carrying firefighters from the front lines of a stubborn wildfire in the Trinity Alps Wilderness. It had been airborne less than a minute when it lost power and fell into the forest. Seven firefighters, the pilot and a Forest Service safety inspector were killed. The co-pilot and three firefighters were injured. Documents previously released by the board indicate the helicopter, leased to the Forest Service by Carson Helicopters of Grants Pass, Ore., was at least 1,000 pounds overweight when pilots tried to take off from a rugged mountaintop clearing. The documents also indicate Carson may have understated the weight of the helicopter, as well as others in its fleet, preventing the pilots from accurately calculating if the chopper had enough power to carry 13 people plus firefighting equipment and fuel...more

Forest service ponders closing some forest to hunters, snowmobilers

The Huron-Manistee National Forest is reviewing if some areas should be closed to hunters and snowmobilers following a lawsuit alleging those two groups get preferential treatment compared to “quiet users.” The National Forest Service will consider banning hunting and snowmobile use in the semiprimitive non-motorized areas of the forest. Such a move would set aside 66,000 acres for quiet uses, out of about 987,000 total acres of forest. Kurt Meister, a Novi lawyer who has a cottage in Cadillac near the National Forest, successfully appealed a lawsuit to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court arguing the Forest Service favored hunters and snowmobilers over quiet users in its 2006 land management plan. A federal district judge in Detroit had ruled in favor of the Forest Service. Huron-Manistee National Forest spokesman Ken Arbogast said the Forest Service will consider the economic, social and environmental impacts of any changes, and no decisions have been made yet. “We may either stay with the situation we have now, put in some kind of a ban or some other alternative the people may suggest that we’re not even aware of,” he said...more

Alaskan Wildfires Could Trigger 'Runaway Climate Change'

Severe Alaskan wildfires have released much more carbon than was stored by the region's forests over the past 10 years, researchers report today. They warned that the pattern could lead to a "runaway climate change scenario" where larger, more intense fires release more greenhouse gases that, in turn, lead to more warming. The northern wildfires burn peatlands that consist of decaying plant litter, moss and organic matter in the soil, said Merritt Turetsky, an ecologist at the University of Guelph in Canada and lead author of a new study. Such fires have a huge impact given that the peatlands contain much of the world's soil carbon – about as much carbon as is found in the atmosphere or in the total of terrestrial biomass (plants and animals). "These findings are worrisome, because about half the world's soil carbon is locked in northern permafrost and peatland soils," Turetsky explained. "This is carbon that has accumulated in ecosystems a little bit at a time for thousands of years, but is being released very rapidly through increased burning." The fire-chasing researchers found that burned area has doubled in Alaska's interior over the last decade. They traveled to almost 200 forest and peatland burn sites so that they could measure how much biomass had gone up in smoke and flames, and also examined fire records dating back to the 1950s...more

Camino Real trail may land on historic places list

A centuries-old trail through Doña Ana County that played an important part in New Mexico history will gain the spotlight this week because of a proposal pending before a state panel. A state historic preservation panel will vote on whether portions of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Royal Road to the Interior Lands) should be added to the state's official list of historic places. A second measure would nominate the same stretches for listing on the national register of historic places, said Tom Drake, spokesman for the state Historic Preservation Division. An eventual U.S. listing would lead to greater protections for the trail because any projects involving federal dollars that could impact the trail would undergo more scrutiny, said Jean Fulton, executive director of El Camino Real de Tierra Trail Association, or CARTA. "Listing the segments in the register will raise public awareness regarding the trail's national significance," she said. Spanish conquistador Juan de O-ate and an entourage of explorers first traveled El Camino Real route northward from Mexico in 1598 - about a decade before the first Europeans settled Jamestown, Va. - but the route was traveled by American Indians for centuries prior to that. The trail became a major travel route between Mexico City and Santa Fe...more

Gila National Forest supervisor retires

After a 32-year Forest Service career, Forest Supervisor Dick Markley of the Gila National Forest has retired. Markley served for a little over three years as head of the 3.3 million acre Forest that includes three wilderness areas including the nation’s first designated wilderness, the Gila Wilderness. His retirement took effect Friday. During Markley’s tenure as supervisor he set as priorities developing a travel management plan for the forest, accomplishing the annual fuels treatment goal to protect local communities from wildfire, completing the backlog of environmental analyses for grazing permits and accomplishing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) projects funded on the forest. Craig Cowie, currently the fire staff officer overseeing the Gila fire organization, is serving as acting forest supervisor through the end of December...more

Lake Tahoe's Cave Rock court case inspires book about sacred place

A precedent-setting court case concerning a Lake Tahoe landmark so intrigued author Michael Makley that he teamed with his historian son Matthew to write about it. The result, "Cave Rock: Climbers, Courts, and a Washoe Indian Sacred Place," (University of Nevada Press, $24.95 paperback) examines the court cases involved in the Washoe tribe's successful attempt to ban rock climbing at the South Shore site. It explains the vigorous arguments presented by the tribe, which considers the site a sacred and powerful place, and by the climbers, who had their own attachments to Cave Rock, ranging from a challenging place to climb to a place of spiritual serenity. After two decades of debate and legal decisions, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling to ban rock climbing and other invasive activity at Cave Rock in 2007, based on its cultural, rather than religious, importance to the tribe. It was an outcome seldom experienced by American Indians in court. For the rock climbers, Cave Rock was a world-class site. Many also spoke of the spiritual nature of the place. Opponents of the climbing ban noted that tunnels built through Cave Rock for U.S. 50 already had left significant impact on the rock as had years of public use. For the Washoe, Cave Rock represented generations of tribal shamans or doctors using the site as a place of spiritual power. For some Washoe, Makley said, Cave Rock is so sacred, they'll drive all the way around Lake Tahoe to avoid driving through the rock's highway tunnels...more

High noon at not-ok corral

He defended his home like it was the Alamo. A 77-year-old rancher gave drug-cartel thugs the fight of their lives when they tried to take possession of his sprawling property in northern Mexico, becoming a folk hero in a region ravaged by violence. Alejo Garza Tamez turned his humble farmhouse into a fortress for his last stand -- lining up his numerous hunting rifles in windows and doorways -- after receiving an ultimatum on Nov. 13 from the drug-gang guerrillas to vacate within 24 hours or die. The lionhearted rancher was ready when two truckloads of heavily armed gang members returned the next morning. "He'd told me he'd gotten threats, but he didn't notify the authorities. He never trusted them," his daughter Sandra Garza told Telediario Nocturno. Authorities said the cartel first rolled up that Saturday to Garza's ranch, located about 15 miles outside of Ciudad Victoria, to tell him the house he'd built by hand 34 years ago was on land they needed to expand their cocaine and marijuana routes to the US border. Garza immediately dismissed all the workers on his ranch and told them not to come to work the next day. Then the hunter and gun collector gathered up every weapon he could muster. He perched guns in the windows and doors, lining the floors with extra ammo. And he waited in the dark and silence...more

Also see the previously posted Alejandro Garza and his Border War

Clint Cooper completes brotherly trifecta with Round 4 win at NFR

As brothers, tie-down ropers Clint, Clif and Tuf Cooper share numerous things, including spots in this year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, and now the trio can add go-round championship buckles to the list. Clint, the eldest of ProRodeo Hall of Famer Roy Cooper’s sons, joined his brothers as round winners at this year’s $5.875 million Wrangler NFR by tying five-time World Champion Tie-Down Roper Cody Ohl for the Round 4 victory with a 7.1-second run. Wrangler NFR rookie Clif Cooper won Round 1, while Tuf – last year’s Wrangler NFR average champion – took the go-round buckle in the third round. Clint Cooper and Ohl finished one-tenth of a second ahead of Stran Smith to share the round win, and each earned $15,676 in the process. “I knew the calf was going to be fast handling,” said Clint Cooper, who is riding the 2010 AQHA/PRCA Tie-Down Roping Horse of the Year Sweetness. “I missed (the barrier) a tick, and Sweetness made up all the ground. Sweetness did everything for me. He set up the whole run for me.” The eldest Cooper was thrilled to join his brothers as round winners in Las Vegas this year. “First of all, to make history with all three of us being here, I’m just privileged and honored and blessed,” he said. “Shoot, after Clif won the first round in 7.8 and Tuf was 6.9, I was thinking, ‘Please God, I need to get to that South Point (winner’s stage) somehow.’” The Cooper victories mark the first time since 1991 that a set of three brothers each won rounds at the Wrangler NFR. Dan, Billy and Robert Etbauer all won rounds at the same NFR twice (1989, 1991)...more

Song Of The Day #451

Ranch Radio is usually not a fan of modern artists covering hits by traditional country singers. Every once in a while though, they come up with something interesting. Check out Teddy Thompson's cover of the Ernest Tubb hit Walking The Floor Over You. Instead of speeding it up like most covers, he slows it down and gives it a bluesy feel. I like it.

The tune is on his 13 track CD Up Front and Down Low.

Monday, December 06, 2010

Do you think they meant Angus?


Dems aim for 100+ bills in 1 swoop

Democratic efforts to push through more than 100 public lands and water bills in the lame duck session are reaching a fever pitch, with the recognition this is the last chance many of them have to become law. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has tasked Democratic leaders on at least three committees to come up with a list of bills that could get past a GOP filibuster. They may also need to be able to secure the two-thirds support that would be needed if the House tries to expedite the package without amendments in a tight legislative calendar. Several Senate Republicans are cosponsors of individual bills that could be included but the GOP appears likely to object to the package as a whole. “There’s no way a giant omnibus like that would gain support among Republicans,” said Robert Dillon, spokesman for Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “There’s bills in there we would like to see passed but not this way. We don’t have the time to fix all the problems.” A potential Democratic package could include more than 100 measures from at least three panels. Energy and Natural Resources has passed 72 public lands bills that are pending on the Senate calendar and there are others the panel has not yet voted on; the Environment and Public Works Committee has so far given more than a dozen bills to be considered; while the Commerce Committee Friday sent over a list of 13 bills. Bingaman spokesman Bill Wicker said the panel's bills are not controversial and many were approved with no opposition. Bingaman staffers are holding off on providing a final list to Reid in case additional bills not voted on by the panel could be added...more

Chamber, Realtors & Homebuilders ask Bingaman to remove S. 1689 from Omnibus bill

Saying "We do not believe S. 1689 as currently written is in the best interests of the citizens of Dona Ana County", three business organizations have asked Senator Jeff Bingaman to remove the bill from "any last minute consideration by the Congress."

The chair persons of the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, the Las Cruces Association of Realtors and Building Industry Association of Southern NM stated in a letter to Senator Bingaman "our organizations continue to have significant concerns with S. 1689, especially in the areas of Border Security and Flood Control."

Here is the complete letter.

Democrats seek changes in wolf recovery program

Martin Heinrich
A dozen Democratic members of Congress have asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a letter to change a federal Mexican gray wolf recovery effort project. The Dec. 1 letter was signed by New Mexico Rep. Martin Heinrich and Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and recommends the release of eight wolves in Arizona and 14 in New Mexico considered eligible for release under the program's rules. The lawmakers also recommended the retrieval of telemetry receivers loaned to private parties that alert ranchers and property owners when wolves are nearby. Some conservationists believe the telemetry receivers can be used to locate and kill Mexican gray wolves. Thirty-five wolves have been killed illegally since the program was launched along the Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 with the release of wolves into a national forest in southeast Arizona. The letter also asks Fish and Wildlife to release a completed draft environmental assessment that could lead to a new policy allowing captive wolves to be released directly into New Mexico. Under current rules, wolves new to the wild can only be released initially into Arizona, with New Mexico reserved for the relocation of previously captured wolves...more

Rural New Mexicans and ag producers take a look at the Congress Critter from Albuquerque. Heinrich is the one pushing for an Omnibus Public Lands Bill in the House and now he's promoting changes to the wolf program that will make it even worse for rural folk and their families. You better get to know this former EartFirster, because he is out to get you.

Court: Wolf data exempt from disclosure

Environmental groups are not entitled to specific locations of where wolves have killed cattle, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. In a unanimous decision, the court said the specific data sought by the organizations is exempt from disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act. The judge said that means the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has the information, can keep it secret. Thursday's ruling met with disappointment from members of the groups. They said the data is needed to provide crucial information they believe ultimately would help preserve Mexican wolves in Arizona and New Mexico. Eva Sargent, director of southwest programs for the Defenders of Wildlife, said the data sought would help her organization work with ranchers to prevent "depredation" of cattle by wolves. For example, she said ranchers can put extra cowboys into the field. "Wolves are generally discouraged by humans' presence," Sargent said. She said cattle can be moved away or electric fencing can be installed. And Sargent said there even is a way to have alarms go off when a wolf with a radio tracking collar approaches the fence to scare the animal off. Matt Kenna, the attorney who represented the environmental groups, said there are other uses for the information. He pointed out that most of the losses to ranchers occurs on leased public lands and not on private property. "When the renewals came up, or even before then, we could provide public comment on them," Kenna said. He said that could include requiring ranchers to modify their operations to reduce wolf attacks -- or even proposing that certain lands be off limits to cattle grazing...more

So who are you going to believe? Sargent, who just wants to "help" ranchers shoo the wolves away, or Kenna, who wants to amend or eliminate your grazing permit?

I'm going with Kenna, and I'll bet Martin Heinrich is too.

WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage. The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial "Copenhagen accord", the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009. Negotiating a climate treaty is a high-stakes game, not just because of the danger warming poses to civilisation but also because re-engineering the global economy to a low-carbon model will see the flow of billions of dollars redirected...more

The Road to Cancun

What we are witnessing today, here and everywhere, is the embryonic formation of a New Climate Internationale--farmers, workers, indigenous people, students, and consumers uniting to save the Earth from catastrophic global warming. What we are demonstrating on hundreds of thousands of organic farms and ranches; in thousands of community organizing projects; and in our direct action protests to stop coal plants, mega-developments, and deforestation is that a New World is possible--a new, relocalized climate-friendly Commonwealth, rising out of the rubble and ruins of the old. Beyond the disinformation of Fox News and the gloom and doom of the mainstream mass media, there are rays of sunshine, brighter and stronger by the day. A global climate justice movement is emerging and moving forward, with no help whatsoever from the Obama Administration; and openly defying the powerful climate change deniers in Corporate America and the U.S. Congress...more

They are still out there...

Carbon credit programs fail without climate bill

A national program that paid farmers millions of dollars for reducing greenhouse gasses has fizzled amid uncertainty about U.S. climate legislation, stopped paying dividends and will no longer taken enrollment after this year, the president of the group running it said. The North Dakota Farmers Union awarded farmers carbon dioxide credits for using techniques that reduced emissions of carbon and other gasses tied to global warming and distributed the proceeds when those credits were sold to businesses, cities and others. About 3,900 farmers and ranchers from 40 states have earned about $7.4 million through the program since it started in 2006. But carbon credits that fetched up to $7 a metric ton a few years ago are now nearly worthless, said Robert Carlson, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union. The group has 6 million tons worth of credits that have gone unsold, and while it will continue to try to sell those, no new credits will be issued after this year, Carlson said. The program based in Jamestown is the largest of about a dozen similar carbon credit programs nationwide that cater solely to farmers and ranchers. Those other programs are facing the same difficulties, said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union in Washington and a former North Dakota agriculture commissioner. The credits would have had value if Congress had passed so-called cap-and-trade climate legislation...more

No coercion, no value. Imagine that. No wonder the National Farmers Union is always lobbying to give more power to Fedzilla. Apparently their members can't produce anything of value.

Cows bite back: Cattle ear tag proves lethal to NM wolf

In a story some supporters of Western wolf reintroduction may find hard to swallow, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reporting a federally protected Mexican gray wolf found dead in Southwestern New Mexico in October likely died of an intestinal rupture caused by a plastic ear tag commonly used on grazing cattle in the region...The Outdoor Press Room

The AP story is here.

Song Of The Day #450

It's Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio.

To get your heart started and your foot tapping here is Keith Norris performing Two Step Program.

You can find the tune on his 15 track CD Deuce.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

So you want to be a ranch wife?
 by Julie Carter

    



    Score: Gate - 1 Ranch wife - 0 And the town folk likely wanted to call authorities to report a beating when they saw her in town on Monday.
    Anyone with any knowledge about ranch wives knew exactly what had happened when she said the words "a gate and a cow."
    With a shiner that sent black and blue over most of one side of her face, an eye that peeked through a narrow slit in the swelling, and bruises that obviously weren't leaving anytime soon, she laughed and said, "You should have seen it yesterday, it was a lot worse."
    It's an old story and this tough little woman proved that it's still an ongoing hazard for the ranch wife - a husband that says, "Hold that gate and don't let her (the cow) by."
    In a hundred years of cattle ranching, the bovine species has never gotten the memo about that particular plan.
    At something maybe close to 5 feet tall, this little gal grew up holding her own in the corrals sorting and working cattle. Gender has never required allowances for special treatment when it comes to ranch work.
    When the operation is a "mom and pop" deal, mom has to pull her share of the duty without regard to stature, age or necessary domestic duties.
    As a thousand pounds of cow steam rolls toward a gate with an obvious determination to exit through it, and the little woman holding said gate knows "this is gonna hurt," there is a flash of mental calculating that determines what happens next.
    With Herculean strength, at least in her mind, she more often than not will try to hold her own, ergo hold the gate, against the cow, steer or even a freshly weaned 500-pound calf. With a hope of the odds and perhaps angels on her side, she prefers that option to the likely hollering or maybe even a cussing from the "boss."
    Or worse yet, the thought that she "can't do this job." She knows from experience there are consequences if she decides to pitch the gate away and run.
    With any luck at all, the results won't require a wild and bumpy pickup ride to the "local" hospital emergency room a couple hours away. That would really mess up a well-planned afternoon of getting some cattle sorted and tended to before dark.
    But sometimes, the cow wins. Odds are she'll be a favorite cow, one that's raised 5-6 good calves.
    And although she's a little on the cranky side even on a good day, her production stats determine that she be given dispensation for her attitude and grievances against the little missus.
    And the missus? Well according to the head cowboy, she needs to get a bag of ice on that eye because she's got a job in town that she needs to tend to on Monday. Have to keep the priorities in order so as to make a living.
    There are a few tough gals who have learned quitting is sometimes a temporary option. Nothing taxes a good ranch marriage like working cattle together in the corral. Sign language and hollering are a given, as are threats of cold meals or worse yet, a week of Spam sandwiches.
    Worth remembering is the story about the cowboy who, in his anger at his non-compliant help in the corral, told his wife to "just go on to the house. I'll finish up by myself."
    Obediently she got in the pickup and drove home. However, in his tempered state, he had forgotten that they'd come to the pens together. That pickup she drove off in was the only vehicle at the corrals.
    It was an eight-mile walk back to the house.

Julie, a purple-heart veteran of the cow and gate wars, can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net.


The BACA - Government and Environmental Collusion

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

    What does the Valles Caldera National Preserve Act of 2000 and the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2010 have in common?  For starters, how about the fact shenanigans are being played out between the federal government and the Environmental movement in the lame duck session of Congress in the pending Omnibus Bill?
    The famed northern New Mexico Baca Ranch, as the Valles Caldera was once known, was granted to the heirs of Don Luis Maria Cabeza de Vaca in 1860.  Through time, it was ranched, logged, and mined.  Under private ownership it was one of the wonders of northern New Mexico.  Known for its fishing, wildlife, scenery, and cattle it was a beautiful historic property.   
    When its ownership decided to sell the property, the federal government jumped at the opportunity to buy the ranch.  Based on the condition it would remain a working cattle ranch, the private ownership agreed to sell the ranch to the United States.  The Feds stood tall and looked them right in the eye and pledged that their wishes would be honored.  In 2000, the Valles Caldera National Preserve Act (S.3452) was passed, the ranch was purchased, and one of the crown jewels of ranching was added to federal ownership.
    In order to demonstrate the condition of sale, wording was added to the act to uphold the wishes of the sellers and the promise of the buyer.  The ranch would be made profitable within a 15 year period.  To the wary observer, alarm bells should have gone off immediately.  Why would it take 15 years to become profitable when it was profitable at the time of the sale?  Secondly, if it was going to be left a cattle operation, why was it so ceremoniously renamed “Valles Caldera”?
     History will remind us that the federal government agreed that the conditions of the Baca were indeed pristine.  The wording of the Act rambled on about the ranch being a “preserved mix of healthy range and timber land with significant species diversity thereby serving as a model for sustainable land development and use.”       
     In the years since 2000 and the signing of the Act, the Baca has not been profitable, and it shows no sign that it ever will be under the mission and the direction of its board.  It is without surprise that the board has indicated that cattle numbers cannot be brought up to economic levels because of “historical overgrazing, etc, etc.”  What had been a jewel that supported many families and produced abundant food, fiber, and natural resources has become a welfare operation under the federal government. 
     Fast forward to 2010, Senator Bingaman has introduced S.1892, the “Valles Caldera Preservation Act”.  In short, the bill intends to dispense with cumbersome promises, remove the management of the land from the oversight of the Forest Service, and hand it to the Park Service.  Without even suggesting the direction the Baca will now go, Americans should know the Park Service has never operated anything that was self-sustaining.  In fact, the bill calls for $16 million for the change with another $16 million needed within the next five years.  From profitability to welfare state, the great Baca has been swept into the sinkhole of federal land management.
     The Baca is a glaring example of what is right with American and what is wrong.  Under private stewardship the ranch was self sustaining and described as the model for future land management programs.  The mix of wildlife and natural beauty were inspiring to all who saw it.  Its cattle enterprise, mining, and logging had not only sustained it they empowered the level of stewardship that carried it forward to the state that existed (and so glowingly described in the words of the bill) at the time of the sale.  
     Under federal management the promises of profitability and the perpetuation of the historical endeavors are in jeopardy.  In a simple act of Congress, the promise implicit in the bill will forever be erased.  Do not men of integrity know that words mean something?  Aren’t men of Congress bound by any level of promise?
    In the private world, a much more simplistic course of action would have been taken.  If the demand was profitability, the pledge would have been to honor the demand.  If the manager selected for the task failed, he would be fired.  If that manager failed, he would have been fired.  If no manager was capable of performing the charge, the property would have been sold to somebody with enough moxie to bring back historical successes. 
     The problem now under the Federal government is the Valles Caldera board is in conflict with the principle of the mission.  They don’t want cattle, they don’t like cattle, and they have no qualms about breaching any measure of an agreement they have no intention of supporting.  Technically, they are on a path to break the intent of the law and the promise to the seller. They should be replaced.  Their actions should also be investigated, and, if they are found criminally negligent of dereliction of duty, they should be prosecuted.
     If there is a single individual who must hold promises in sacred trust, it must come from the senior senator of the state, Jeff Bingaman.  If he holds such promises in trust, he can be trusted with all matters of his constituency even if they disagree with his position.  If he is complicit in disregarding promises of trust, especially the condition allowing the Baca to come into federal ownership, he cannot be trusted on any matter. 
     The Baca is a microcosm of what ails America today.  It is a matter of integrity in government.  The United States promised in S.3452 the Baca “to be protected for current and future generations by continued operation as a working cattle ranch”.  It pledged to make the operation profitable in 15 years and that promise must be kept.  A prudent senior leader would recognize the importance of such a promise.  The philosophers can suggest the cause and effect, but “One Nation, under God” keeps its promises . . . or it will find leaders who will go to their graves before they corrupt that promise!

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.  “There is honor amongst those too poor to pay for their sport.  Dishonor comes from men who elevate themselves without consent.  We are ‘One Nation, under God’.  We are not one nation under gods.”        
    
                             
     

The “Miss TSA Calendar,” Featuring Sexy X-Rays Of Girls In Heels

Looking to make light of the whole body scanner/patdown controversy? Then say hello to the “Miss TSA Calendar,” a collection of photos that show girls in classic pinup positions. The catch? The pictures are all x-rays, so the only things that are visible in them are bones and the models’ high heels...more


Tim Cox is President of the Cowboy Artists of America

Hurry Sunup

Born in Safford, raised in Duncan, Arizona, Tim Cox aspired to be an artist his whole life.
"The older I get the more important it is for me to put down
in paint the places and things in the west that I have seen
before they disappear.

Cowboys on horseback in country like this speak volumes
about the deep affection that I have for good horses and and
wide open spaces."
In a 1975 high school English class essay, he wrote that one of his fondest wishes was to be a member of the Cowboy Artists of America. His wish was granted in 2007 when he was invited to join the prestigious group. After serving on the Board of Directors for a year, he is now the current President. The longest surviving organization of fine art artists; they have just completed their 45th Annual Cowboy Artists of America Art Show and Exhibition, held at the Phoenix Art Museum.

Tim has been painting professionally since 1975 and has received numerous awards including the 2003 “Prix de West Purchase Award” and “Express Ranches Great American Cowboy Award” in 2004 and 2007 from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. In 2001, he received the “Will Rogers Western Artist Award” for Artist of the Year from the Academy of Western Artists and the “Olaf Wieghorst Best of Show Award” from the Mountain Oyster Club three times. He won the purchase award at the Governor's Invitational Art Show at Cheyenne Frontier Days three times as well. Tim was voted into U.S. Art Magazine’s “Print Hall of Fame” in 2000 and in 2008, Decor Magazine listed him as one of the fourteen “Most Enduring and Successful Poster Artists.”

Tim Cox
Tim Cox's work hangs in the permanent collections of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, The Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia and in the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

While most of his time is consumed by painting, Tim regularly rides and works on various ranches throughout the West. He combines the basic ingredients of color, value, perspective and pleasing design with his desire to be a perfectionist in portraying the real working cowboy. This perfectionism earned Tim the “Ayudando Siempre Alli Award” from the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association for his contributions to agriculture. Alisa Ogden, President of the Association said: “Along with lifting our spirits, Tim Cox’s special images keep the magic of the cowboy alive for literally tens of thousands of city folks across the nation and around the world.”

"I portray the cowboy because it is what I have known all my life, as far back as I can
trace my family tree. It is the feeling of freedom, space, the outdoors, the magnificent landscapes,
the light, the honesty and values of the western spirit and family. I couldn't paint anything else.
This is my passion and it is what I know and love.

I paint the details because, in the agriculture business, it is the small details that make the difference
between profit and loss; survival or failure. I paint for the people that live this life."

Tim is a fourth generation Arizonan, but now resides outside of Bloomfield, New Mexico, where he continues to raise a few cattle and train horses with his daughter Calla and wife Suzie. ###

Like A Dance

Song Of The Day #449

Ranch Radio's Gospel tune today will be by the Seldom Scene performing the Mac Wisman song By The Side of the Road.

You'll find it on their 11 track CD Baptizin'.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Hastings Blasts Lame Duck Attempt to Push Through Massive Omnibus Package

House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement following reports of a potential omnibus lands, wildlife and waterways package being developed in the U.S. Senate: “Somewhere in the Senate, Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer are secretly constructing a Frankenstein omnibus of bills from three separate Committees. Democrat leaders are ignoring the overwhelming message sent by voters in November that they wanted an end to the backroom deals that produce giant bills loaded with new spending and job-killing policies. It isn’t known just how monstrous of a bill is being assembled – that’s the problem with backroom deals and omnibus packages. The House Natural Resources Committee Republican staff has conducted a specific bill-by-bill analysis, based on public reports and reliable private accounts, of the range of legislation that is possibly being packaged into this omnibus – it could total as high as 126 bills, which would equate to a 1,400-page behemoth of over $10 billion in authorized spending....more

Below is Hastings' letter

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer:

I have serious concerns regarding current efforts in the Senate to pass a massive omnibus lands package in the final days of this Congress. According to news reports, such a package could consist of more than 126 different bills, many of which have not been considered by the House, and cost over $10 billion.

These concerns are well-founded given the manner in which a previous omnibus lands package, H.R. 146, was rushed into law last year. This legislation touched on a vast array of issues, spanned hundreds of pages and came at a $9 billion cost to the American taxpayer. H.R. 146 was cobbled together behind closed doors without any regards for transparency. Over half of the individual bills that compiled H.R. 146 never received a hearing in the House and were not properly vetted. In order to avoid any changes to this sprawling bill, and to also avoid having to take potentially politically harmful votes, H.R. 146 was brought to the House floor under a closed Rule that allowed for limited debate and no amendments.

This is not the way the American people expect Congress to legislate and is precisely the type of heavy handed tactics that helped fuel the public’s desire for change in the recent election.

I ask that any attempt to move an omnibus lands package be done through an open, transparent and fair legislative process. Given that a large number of these bills have never been seen before in the House, I request that any legislative package of this type be subject to full committee mark-ups in any of the committees that have jurisdiction over the titles included in the legislation. I also ask that this legislation be subject to an open rule on the House floor in order to allow for amendments, improvement and proper debate.

This omnibus lands bill will have significant impacts on American jobs, our economy and our nation’s energy, environmental and land-use policies. Such a significant bill should not be hastily pushed through Congress without thoughtful and careful consideration.

Thank you for your time and consideration of my request. I look forward to your timely response.

Sincerely,

Doc Hastings
Ranking Member,
House Natural Resources Committee

NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical

NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth. Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components. "The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it." This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express...more

Interior mulls policy on disclosure of gas 'fracking' fluids

The Interior Department may compel natural-gas drillers to disclose the chemicals they're using for a controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing. "Within the Department of the Interior ... we will be considering issuing a policy that will deal with the issue of disclosure requirements with respect to the fluids used in hydraulic fracturing," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday at a forum on natural-gas development. The drilling method — dubbed "fracking" — employs high-pressure injections of chemicals, water and sand to break apart rock formations and enable trapped gas beneath the surface to flow. Interior regulates energy development on public lands. Fracking is enabling a boom in U.S. gas development but also raising fears of groundwater contamination...more

Oil spill panel chief says Interior’s reforms might need to go further

The presidential oil spill commission might conclude that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s steps to eliminate conflicting missions within the agency’s offshore oversight should go even further, the panel’s co-chairman said Thursday. alazar, in the wake of the BP spill, has moved offshore revenue collections completely outside the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service (it’s now called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement). He’s also separating offshore oil-and-gas leasing programs from safety and environmental enforcement. But William Reilly — co-chairman of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling — said Thursday the reforms might not be enough...more

Environmentalists want to close thousands of miles of trails

Environmentalists are pushing to close thousands of miles of Utah’s off-road vehicle trails, and few places illustrate their beef with red-dirt riders better than Arch Canyon. The southeastern Utah landmark, west of Blanding, has a stream-crossing trail muddied by off-road vehicles and a well-known collection of ancient rock art and Puebloan ruins. Environmentalists want the trail and its 60 water crossings closed to vehicles to protect those resources from erosion and vandalism. Off-roaders want it to remain open so they can enjoy those sights. It’s also ripe for archaeological looters and vandals because of the easy access, SUWA says. The group previously asked the BLM to close the route, but the agency this fall rejected that petition. Now SUWA, which issued an unflattering report card Wednesday on the BLM’s management of off-roaders, is urging closures of about 15 percent of the 20,000 miles of routes that were designated in travel plans for 11 million acres in southern and eastern Utah. SUWA’s report card for the BLM’s management of off-roaders gives the agency a "D" in protecting the environment, an "F" in appreciating history and other cultures, but a "B" for improving on the freewheeling access the group says existed before the 2008 travel plans. SUWA already is suing the government over those plans, which designated about 20,000 miles of travel routes stretching from the Four Corners to Richfield to Flaming Gorge...more

The jaw-dropping image of an enormous 'supercell' cloud

It looks like something from the film Independence Day. But although it may seem like an alien mothership, this incredible picture is actually an impressive thunderstorm cloud known as a supercell. Windswept dust and rain dominate the storm's centre while rings of jagged clouds surround the edge. A flimsy tree in the foreground looks like a toy next to the magnificent natural phenomenon. The photograph is just one image from the portfolio of electrician Sean Heavey. The supercell cloud was photographed in July west of Glasgow, Montana, USA. Mr Heavey, 34, an amateur photographer, created the jaw-dropping panoramic image by stitching together three photos from the 400 frames he took of the violent scene he witnessed in July...more


George Soros And Food Safety

    A questionable food safety bill in search of a crisis passed the Senate, but may hit a snag in the House. This power grab of the nation's food supply may end up benefiting a certain Hungarian billionaire. Why would the Senate take up precious time in the lame duck session considering a food safety bill?
    Just as ObamaCare wasn't really about health care reform but about government power, S510 is not really about food safety but about government control of agriculture and the nation's food producers. The Food Safety Modernization Act would give the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented power to govern how farmers produce their crops. The FDA would be able to control soil, water, hygiene, and even temperature, on farms. Through the law, the agency could regulate animal activity in the fields.
    "This legislation means that parents who tell their kids to eat their spinach can be assured it won't make them sick," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who wrote the bill, referring to a recent e-coli outbreak traced to spinach.
    A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, even if you have to manufacture one. As the Heritage Foundation reports, the nation's food supply is the world's safest and getting safer all the time. Incidences of food-borne illnesses, despite headlines about massive egg recalls, have been declining for more than a decade.
    In 1996, there were 51.2 cases of confirmed food-borne bacterial contamination per 100,000 people.
By 2009, this fell by a third to 34.8 cases per 100,000 people. So it would seem it's getting safer for kids to eat their spinach. But then again, this bill isn't about spinach.
    S510 transfers authority over food regulation enforcement from the FDA to the Homeland Security Department, which brought us the TSA, naked body scanners and the groping of our junk. The bill requires the EPA to "participate" in regulating the food chain.
    The bill expands government authority and control over America's 2.2 million farms, 28,000 food manufacturing facilities, 149,000 food and beverage stores, and 505,000 residents and similar facilities. It increases inspections of all food "facilities."
    Because it taxes them for the privilege, the House must pass a new version of the bill to be sent back to the Senate. The Constitution requires all tax bills to originate in the House, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who opened the session with a five-minute soliloquy on football, should have known that.

This editorial was originally published at IBD.

Song Of The Day #448

Ranch Radio brings you Old Napoleon by Hank Thompson.

Thompson's stuff is widely available.

I'll be at the Cattle Growers Convention this weekend, hope to see some of you there.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Alejandro Garza and his Border War

 by Stephen L. Wilmeth

    The heroic fight that Alejandro Garza put up before he was killed by cartel gunman is the stuff of legend.  Mr. Garza, a 77 year old Mexican rancher, had been warned to vacate his northern Mexico ranch by cartel operatives.  Like thousands of other small ranchers in the northern reaches of Mexico, his life had become a simple commodity in the expansion of trafficking territory along the border with the United States.
     If the growing realization by government officials that the death count in Mexico since 2006 may be as much as twice what is being reported, Mr. Garza’s death was added to a list of casualties that is well on it way to equaling that which the United States suffered in Viet Nam.  For a matter of a simple police action, the body counts are starting to make this look like what should properly be called the First Mexican Revolution of the 21st Century.  It is a war.
     In the shootout that claimed Mr. Garza’s life, four cartel gunmen were killed and another two were wounded.  “Alejo” decided that enough was enough and stood his ground.  Nobody was going to take all he had without somebody paying the price for it.  He had sent his family away and waited for the arrival of the gunmen.  He had fought, but the results indicate that the cartels got their operational objective, and his death, along with the others, will simply be a mark on the growing tally sheet.  Only his legend will remain.    
     In the last year, American citizens objecting to the expansion of designated Wilderness on the Mexican border warned their leadership about the danger to the ranchers of northern Mexico as the drug war expanded.  The warning described how ranchers along the border depended on each other for safety and that when one was eliminated the neighbor across the border was put at risk.  Now, it is known that up to 5,000 ranch properties in the state of Tamaulipas have been abandoned as a result of the violence.  Their departures have been filled by drug cartels’ version of their own Forward Operating Bases (FOB) allowing the staging of drugs to be run north. 
     The loss of engaged citizenry from either side of the border elevates the risk of more attrition. When both sides are eliminated, the entry points of the Human and Drug Smuggling Corridors are secured and the danger expands exponentially.  The infamous Arizona Class Human and Drug Smuggling Corridors result if all the other known factors are present.
      The departure of those Mexican ranches is alarming in several respects.  In Tamaulipas alone, annual cattle exports to the United States number about 200,000 animals annually.  As 2010 draws to a conclusion, the cumulative export number is just under one third of that number.  More alarming is the departure of the ranching community that has always provided stability to the social structure of northern Mexico.
      It is not just the ranches, though, that are being devastated.  Social structure is also being torn apart by the disruption of all forms of major commerce.  The utter crisis that is taking place in the major cities of northern Mexico could change the landscape of Mexico for generations.  There are suggestions that in Juarez, the most dangerous city in the world, 40% of the businesses are now gone and as many as 130,000 houses are abandoned.
     This should make American leadership very concerned of the ability of the Mexican government to survive the growing onslaught.  The suggestion that America cannot afford to shut off the flow of illegal immigration in order to avoid a Mexican economic implosion is in the process of being tested.  If the Mexican government fails, America’s lackadaisical attitude about its border policies could be in for a rude awakening.  Someone will fill the void of a Mexican government collapse and it may not be the choice of the United States.
    The warning of concern for Mexican ranchers on the southern border has become reality.  The warning that an expanded drug war will create more opportunities for OTMs (illegals other than Mexicans) has been issued and now the warning must be amplified.  Will our leaders understand the implications?
     The citizens that expressed fear for Mexican ranchers in the expansion of the Drug War being fought over smuggling routes into the United States have been attempting to get New Mexico Senators Bingaman and Udall (D-NM) to listen to concerns regarding the makeup of OTM that are treading northward through those corridors.  The senators, convinced that the safety features of their S.1689, The Organ Mountain – Desert Peaks Wilderness Act are satisfactory, have not budged from their stance for yet more border wilderness expansion.
     The word is out that Environmentalism is trumping National Security on our southern border.  The smuggling corridors are wide open and continue to fan the flames of the Drug War.  A Viet Nam is raging on our door steps, and, yet, the Environmental Leadership is being pressed aggressively to get the wilderness plans slated for the Omnibus Bill passed before rational leadership returns.  Get it done while there is still time!
     Does reality or caution prevail anywhere in Washington?  For folks like Rob Krentz, and, now his counterpart, Alejo Garza, their fight has ended.  They no longer have to fear the actions of their governments.  It is the rest of us who must worry about that and what it means for our future. 

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.  “Isn’t it ironic that the party that bemoaned the atrocities of Viet Nam is virtually silent regarding the same atrocities taking place on our southern border?  Fact is erasing theorem . . . Environmentalism trumps National Security in the actions and the hearts of our elected border leadership.  History will demonstrate that their idealism contributed to the expansion of this war.”

After Tough Year, Salazar Brand May Be Tarnished

Rep. John Salazar's defeat earlier this month sends a rancher and a farmer back to a rural Colorado district -- and calls into question the future of a once-popular political brand. Salazar's defeat caps a difficult year for the politically powerful family. His younger brother, Ken Salazar -- a former Colorado senator and state attorney general -- has been the target of harsh criticism from all corners for his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as secretary of the Interior Department. This election cycle, outside groups spent a few million dollars trying to defeat John Salazar, who had won his two previous re-election campaigns with relative ease. During the race Salazar said he felt like those groups were trying to send a message through him to Washington -- in part, perhaps, because of his brother's position in the Obama administration. Recapping Colorado's electoral outcomes, The Denver Post declared "the Salazar Brand" an election night loser. "With Ken Salazar gone from the U.S. Senate and John Salazar ousted from Congress, their political dynasty is diminishing," the paper wrote. And while political watches on both sides of the aisle said that the Salazar brand has been diminished, they lay the blame less on the elder's loss than on the Interior secretary's absence from the state...more

Colleagues enlist Reid's help with last-ditch push for massive water, lands, wildlife package

Paul Quinlan, E&E reporter
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Senate colleagues this week he will move forward with an eleventh-hour effort to pass a massive package of waterways, public lands and wildlife bills during the lame-duck session, sources say, in what could be a rare environmental victory for a Congress marked by major defeats on climate change and oil spill legislation.
The Nevada Democrat offered his assurances Monday night after a group of about 10 Senate Democrats, including key committee leaders Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), met with him in a room off the Senate floor to ask him to intensify his efforts to push a bill through the heavily divided Senate, which already faces a packed agenda for the waning days of this Congress, the sources said.
"They went to the leader to say, 'We want you to pay attention to this more than you have,'" said an environmental lobbyist closely involved in the effort. Reid's office did not respond to a request for comment last night.
By all accounts, Reid was receptive and the meeting was a success. Afterward, Reid's staff reached out to the offices of senators involved to ask for a draft of the proposed legislation, which was expected to be delivered to the leader's office either last night or today.
The senators and environmentalists pushing for the package are especially hopeful because of the broad, bipartisan support for the waterways legislation that would be included. Taken together, the bills could amount to the most significant change in water legislation since the 1987 amendments to the Clean Water Act.
Waterways bills slated to be included in the package aim to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco Bay, the Columbia River, Puget Sound, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico and Long Island Sound, sources say. Most would authorize, but do not appropriate, money for U.S. EPA to establish new programs and program offices relating to each waterway, award grants and increase accountability. Another bill said to have a place in the package would reauthorize the National Estuary Program.
All passed the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee in June with the full support of committee Democrats and Republicans led by Boxer and ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who are polar opposites politically. Senate Democrats say they hope those bills will help them win the 60 votes needed to move the larger bill through the chamber.
"I think we have a good chance because they are bipartisan bills," Boxer said yesterday of the overall effort.
Senators invited to the meeting with Reid on Monday night included not only Environment and Public Works Committee members but also senators deemed to have a special interest in one or more of the waterways bills -- for example, those who face re-election in 2012 in states where waterway restoration and protection polls well.
Likely to be combined with the waterways bills are measures that Bingaman's Energy and Natural Resources Committee passed individually or in batches during this Congress that aim to protect more than 2 million acres in 13 states; create new national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries; protect migratory birds and rare cats; and combat invasive species.
"There's been a lot of hard work the last two years, and it would be disappointing, to say the least, if a lot of these targeted bills died because the Senate couldn't find the time to move them forward," Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee, said yesterday.
Although many Republicans support individual waterways bills, several remain noncommittal or outright opposed to the idea of rolling their favored bill up with other water, lands and wildlife bills into a single, sweeping package.
"I think the way to go about moving forward on these bills is to probably do them individually," Matt Dempsey, spokesman for the Republican minority on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Monday.
Environmentalists counter that there is no other way. Dozens of groups have lobbied Senate leadership aggressively on behalf of such a sweeping bill, writing letters, dispatching lobbyists to the Hill to buttonhole senators in hallways and even establishing an e-mail distribution list of about 200 that can share news on who's in, who's out, who's on the fence and why.
"Many of these bills have little or no opposition, strong local support and bipartisan sponsorship in Congress," said a Nov. 16 letter to Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that was signed by the heads of 10 major environmental groups, including Environment America, Environmental Defense Fund, the National Audubon Society and National Wildlife Federation.
Time runs very short and even strong supporters -- such as Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) -- admit the odds of success remain slim. Adding to the challenge, many of the bills have not received committee approval in the House.
The likely strategy, say lobbyists, will be to try to find a two-day window during the lame duck between debates over agenda-toppers like taxes and ways to continue funding the federal government. The House would then send over a privileged motion to the Senate, which could then take up the package, vote on it, and send it back to the House for a final, take-it-or-leave-it vote.
Proponents are touting the environmental and -- more important politically -- economic benefits of the proposed legislation. Jeff Skelding, director of the Great Lakes campaign for the National Wildlife Federation, cites a 2007 Brookings Institution report that concluded that investment in Great Lakes restoration would have an economic "multiplier" effect. "The spending of $1 by a fiscal authority typically results in additional spending in a region of between 1.5 and 2.5 times the original spending," the report said.
"The attacks on these bills don't recognize the need," Skelding said. "And it's not just environmental need -- it's an economic need."

Inhofe vows to block natural resources omnibus

Paul Quinlan, E&E reporter
Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe vowed to block a catch-all Senate package of waterways, public lands and wildlife bills that Democrats want to push through in the final days of this Congress.
"I stand in firm opposition to this package, the contents of which are still uncertain," said Inhofe, the Environment and Public Works Committee's ranking member. Inhofe cited concerns over costs and the potential expansion of U.S. EPA authority in the most controversial of the waterways bills, aimed at cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.
Inhofe said he was willing to work with colleagues to advance individual resources bills, but he promised to place a "hold" on any package "to ensure the American people have more time to understand the policy, regulatory and fiscal impacts of these bills."
The committee's chairwoman, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), has pushed for the package and was among 10 or so Democrats who met with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Monday evening. The group convinced Reid to combine more than 100 bills that have emerged from Boxer's committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee for passage during the lame-duck session (E&E Daily, Dec. 1).
In that package are proposals aimed at protecting 2 million acres in 13 states and boosting restoration efforts for the Chesapeake Bay, Lake Tahoe, the San Francisco Bay, the Columbia River, Puget Sound, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico and Long Island Sound.
Inhofe spotlighted his concerns over the Chesapeake Bay bill sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) that would give EPA the legislative power it needs to shepherd President Obama's bay-restoration initiative. Inhofe negotiated significant changes to that bill before he and fellow Republicans voted to pass the legislation and other waterways bills out of the environment committee in June.
Farmers remain vehemently opposed to the bay legislation, which they say arms EPA with precedent-setting power to crack down on fertilizer and animal-waste runoff.
Inhofe said that bill "still needs significant changes, principally with respect to restricting the broad, and unprecedented, scope of authority it grants EPA over state permitting programs." He invited Cardin to work with him on a compromise that he warned would be out of reach "if this bill is thrown together with other bills."
Democrats were still expressing hope today that they might recruit Republican support to move the resource package through the Senate and over to the House before the lame duck ends later this month.
A House Democratic leadership aide expressed hope today that the Senate could pass the package. "We have sent the Senate over 100 land and water bills and are talking to them about these efforts to get the bills done," the aide said in an e-mail today.
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources National Parks Subcommittee, which passed many of the lands bills, said he hoped the bill would pass.
"There's a lot of hard work that would go wasting if we can't put an omnibus lands package together," Udall said. "I'd really hate to see us adjourn without moving the legislation."