Friday, September 06, 2013

New Mexico the New Hollywood? video


See the Fox News report here.

Federal firefighter missing in New Mexico found dead

A U.S. Forest Service firefighter missing for a week in the rugged mountains of New Mexico has been found dead, authorities said Friday. Captain Token Adams, 41, died in an apparent crash of his ATV on a mesa. He disappeared Aug. 30 while searching for a growing wildfire caused by a lightening strike in the Jemez Springs Ranger Disitrict of the Santa Fe National Forest. Karen Takai, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service in Santa Fe, said all available resources were sent out to locate him. The fire has become known as the Holiday Incident because Adams was last seen on an ATV searching for the fire, which spread to 30 acres in an area in the forest known as Holiday Mesa. The fire was later extinguished...more

Suit seeks to stop NM center sale to Texas group

A couple living in a faith-based community at a New Mexico conference center has filed a federal lawsuit to try to block the sale of the 2,000-acre Baptist-affiliated campus to a Texas group. As residents fight to stay on the property, Kirk and Susie Tompkins of Little Rock, Ark., sought to halt the sale of the Glorieta Conference Center to the evangelical group called Glorieta 2.0, the Albuquerque Journal reported Thursday. The couple claims the center's current operator, LifeWay Christian Resources of Nashville, Tenn., can't sell the acreage because it belongs to the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. LifeWay is an arm of the organization. The lawsuit says the SBC's charter directs that its property can only be sold with a majority affirmative vote taken at two consecutive SBC conferences. The couple wants the sale of the center 18 miles southeast of Santa Fe to be put on hold until the SBC can vote on the sale in 2014 and 2015. Glorieta 2.0 paid only a dollar to acquire the Glorieta center from LifeWay earlier this year. LifeWay spokesman Marty King said the group hasn't received formal notice of the lawsuit but added the organization is confident Southern Baptist Convention approval is not required for this transaction. Last month, Glorieta 2.0 told residents they had three options — donating their house to the conference center, getting paid $40,000 to $100,000 for their house and leaving, or staying for 12 years then leaving without a penny for their dwelling. There are about 60 houses on the property. Half are owned by churches and schools. Most of the rest are secondary homes where about five families live full-time...more

House Natural Resources Committee blasts federal agencies in Casper meeting

Four U.S. representatives from Western states accused federal agencies and environmental groups on Thursday of using the Endangered Species Act to inhibit energy development, the agriculture industry and sportsmen throughout the country. The members of the House Natural Resource Committee, all Republican, held a field hearing at the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission building in Casper. Wyoming U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis was joined by committee chairman Rep. Doc Hastings, Wash.; Rep. Doug Lamborn, Colo.; and Rep. Steve Daines, Mont. The members said the Obama administration is allowing special interest groups to use litigation to dictate how federal agencies prioritize endangered species listings. They also pointed blame at the federal Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Allowing the fate of a species to be decided by (them) is not working,” Hastings said. Lummis and her House colleagues believe states are better suited to control when and how animal populations can become listed or delisted as an endangered species. They also are looking for ways to mitigate the influence of environmental and conservation groups that they say use the act to their advantage. The committee went to Billings, Mont., after Casper to hear another round of testimony. The committee is expected to collect the thoughts, concerns and proposed solutions from citizens and eventually write a bill that would amend the law. The act, which hasn't been renewed by Congress for 25 years, keeps being refunded every year. Many opposed to the law would like to see it defunded forever, but for some lawmakers in Washington it is a sacred cow, said Bob Wharf, executive director for the Wyoming Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife...more

Alaskan Miners Want Answers After EPA Storms Mine

Some miners in Alaska want the feds to start digging for answers. A task force including members of 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies descended on a gold mine in the tiny town of Chicken (pop. 17) last month, in what locals described as a raid. “Imagine coming up to your diggings, only to see agents swarming over it like ants, wearing full body armor, with jackets that say "POLICE" emblazoned on them, and all packing side arms,” gold miner C.R. Hammond told the Alaska Dispatch. “How would you have felt? You would be wondering, ‘My God, what have I done now?” A spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency did not deny that agents wore body armor and carried guns, but said it was not a "raid." "The ongoing investigation conducted by the AK Environmental Crimes Task Force -- consisting of EPA, ADEC, USFWS, ADFG, BLM, Coast Guard, FBI, Alaska State Troopers, NOAA, & US Park Service -- did not result in a raid," the statement read. "The Task Force members involved in the investigation during the week of August 19, 2013, were EPA's Criminal Investigation Division & Bureau of Land Management's Office of Law Enforcement & Security, in cooperation with ADEC's Environmental Crimes Unit." The investigation was into possible violations of the Clean Water Act, according to the EPA. The officers were part of the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force and visited the outpost near the Canadian border during the third week of August to investigate water discharges into rivers, streams, lakes and oceans. Late Thursday, Alaska Gov.Sean Parnell announced he had ordered an investigation into the incident, adding, "this level of intrusion and intimidation of Alaskans is absolutely unacceptable." EPA law enforcement officers, according to the statement, are not only authorized but required to carry firearms to safely and effectively perform their jobs. Several local lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, have inquired about the incident, but EPA officials have thus far “refused to publicly explain” why it utilized the armed officers during the operation, according to the Alaska Dispatch...more

Environmentalists want you powerless

 by Marita K. Noon

The power plant closures are coming!  The power plant closures are coming!

While no one is riding through town to announce the news, the results to America could be nearly as dire as the coming of the Redcoats. Despite millions already spent on modifications, fully functional coal-fueled power plants are being shut down — not because they are not needed but due to ideology. In fact, the Energy Information Administration predicts that electricity demand will continue to grow 0.9 percent per year until 2040 as we plug into electricity that is becoming increasingly expensive.

One such example is the San Juan Generating Station in New Mexico's Four Corners area that provides about 60 percent of PNM's (New Mexico's primary electricity provider) total electric generation in the state. The coal-fueled plant has four generating units – two of which are being shut down due to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. The Albuquerque Journal reports that there will be "rate hikes to allow PNM to recover costs associated with the changes at San Juan."

The San Juan Generating Station is scheduled for closure in 2017, but the process of replacing the 340 megawatts that will be lost has already started. PNM wants to fill the need with a new natural-gas plant at the same site and by bringing in more nuclear power from the Palo Verde Generating Station in Arizona, in which PNM is already part owner. Environmentalists oppose PNM's plan and are pushing for more renewables such as wind and solar – which will "drive costs way up."

But the problem with renewables isn't just the cost or the intermittency. The problem is that environmentalists also oppose what it takes to get the natural resources needed to build, for example, a wind turbine.  And most people don't think about where the metals and minerals come from or what it takes to recover or shape them.

The Northwest Mining Association lists the metals and minerals needed to build one 3-megawatt wind turbine:  The list includes 335 tons of steel and 4.7 tons of copper.  Thus, to replace the 340 MW of electricity generated at San Juan with wind would take 113 of those 3-MW wind turbines – requiring 37,855 tons of steel and 1,598 tons of copper. Since each megawatt produced requires 198 acres, 67,320 acres would be covered with wind turbines. And these figures assume "nameplate" capacity – which means they are producing electricity 24/7. Realistically, wind turbines produce power at 25 percent to 30 percent capacity. Real numbers for steel, copper, land, etc., would be 3 to 4 times higher.

Steel is an iron-based alloy that requires coal in the production process. It takes about 400 pounds of coal to produce a ton of steel. Unfortunately, the Obama administration – which is closely aligned with the environmentalists' agenda – doesn't seem to understand this. They are pushing for more wind turbines – with Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell "gearing up to make offshore wind energy a hallmark of her tenure," according to the Washington Post.

At the same time, environmentalists are coal's adversaries.



New Mexico regulators approve partial shut down of power plant

State environmental regulators on Thursday signed off on a proposal that calls for shutting down part of a coal-fired power plant that serves more than 2 million customers in the Southwest. The proposal was negotiated earlier this year by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state's largest electric utility, PNM, as a way to curb pollution at the San Juan Generating Station in northwestern New Mexico. Martinez said the decision by the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board to back the plan clears the way for "the best solution to balance the environmental and economic impacts of energy production in the Four Corners." The governor said the agreement will improve air quality, conserve water and avoid what she called "an extremely burdensome" rate hike for PNM customers. She added that it will also help New Mexico make the transition from coal to natural gas. The state, federal regulators, the utility and environmentalists have been fighting over the best way to reduce pollution at the plant for years. The EPA had initially ordered the utility to equip the plant with certain technology to cut pollutants that cause haze and visibility issues in national parks and wilderness areas in the region. The order sparked a round of appeals and lawsuits by the state and PNM. One of the chief concerns was that the cost of the federally mandated upgrades would result in higher electric bills for customers...more

Only You Can Stop the Forest Service

Ranger counting sheep in Tres Piedras 1939
by David Correia

Federal land management has been a disaster in New Mexico. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Forest Service (USFS), which together administer 30 million acres (nearly a third of all land in New Mexico) present themselves as stewards of New Mexico’s forests, deserts, ranges and bosques. They aren’t. If you like what BLM does, you probably own an oil company. Last year the BLM approved nearly 1,100 drilling permits in New Mexico, nearly 20 percent more than the previous year and nearly as much as Utah and Colorado combined...

While BLM is expanding, flush with oil and gas revenue, the USFS is dying on the vine, strangled by a declining budget. And that’s not entirely a bad thing. Like BLM in New Mexico, captive to corporate interests, the districts of the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests once operated like timber company field offices. Timber sales funded growing staffs, which made it possible to offer more and larger timber sales.

The Forest Service and its mission to manage timber for industry was born with a sweep of Teddy Roosevelt’s pen on Feb. 1, 1905; it died in New Mexico on March 16, 1993, the day the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Mexican spotted owl as a threatened species. That listing was the thunderclap announcing a gathering storm of environmental organizations that swept in after the ruling to sue the Forest Service into submission. The lawsuits disciplined the agency and transformed it from an appendage of industry to an arm of the environmental movement.

Environmental histories of New Mexico celebrate March 16, 1993 as the day the Forest Service died for our (timber) sins and was resurrected as an ecologically oriented agency. Walk into any district office in northern New Mexico. Where you once found rangers furiously preparing timber sales, you now find them polishing their environmental impact statements. Where you once found rangers huddling with timber executives, you now find them handing out trail maps to hikers...

Consider a passage from a 1935 Forest Service report: “[New Mexicans] are sedentary in character living in the present and with no thought for the future. They accept conditions as they are and make the best of them with no idea of conserving the natural resources much less enhancement of them. They would remain in place to the point of extinction by starvation and disease before they would migrate.”

This is revealing language. To the Forest Service, the point of a forest is timber. Trees are only stumps-in-waiting. In sustained yield forestry, rangers found a way to “enhance” New Mexico. They slashed permits for livestock, explaining that local villagers' animals were overgrazing ranges. Locals protested. I interviewed an older man in El Rito years ago about these cuts. He was a boy at the time, and he watched his grandfather argue with a local ranger. His grandfather told the ranger he needed the workhorses but didn’t have the money to feed them through winter. They’d starve, he said. So the ranger walked into the corral and shot the horses.

The claim of overgrazing, however, was just a pretense. In internal Forest Service memos, they described the cuts as necessary, not to protect ranges but to force locals into wage labor in the timber industry. It was a plan to turn peasants into proletarians.

The cuts culminated in the creation of the Vallecitos Federal Sustained Yield Unit (VFSYU), a special timber unit on the Carson’s El Rito District. During its heyday in the 1970s, the district office served as little more than a day labor operation for timber firms. To protect profitability, the district kept wage rates low; to keep locals trapped in low-wage jobs, the district cut more livestock permits. Rangers turned the forest into a factory. When workers went on strike in the 1950s, the Forest Service sided with the timber operator. The sawmill mysteriously burned down.



Scenic Pine Forest Range could be Nevada’s next designated wilderness

On approach from the desert, the Pine Forest Range looks much like any other arid stretch of tumbled mountains in northwestern Nevada. It’s anything but. Just north of the Black Rock Desert, Pine Forest offers a diverse landscape of rolling slopes of sagebrush, dense stands of aspen and otherworldly clusters of rock formations. Scenic lakes and reservoirs offer world-class trout fisheries. From the ranchers who make their livelihood on grazing allotments to environmentalists intent on preserving a rugged landscape, anyone familiar with the place agrees it’s special. “The water, the vegetation, the geological formations, the place is just incredible,” Reno resident Pat Bruce told the Reno Gazette-Journal. “It’s like another planet.” It’s something else as well. Pine Forest, the focus of deliberations by local and regional interests concerned with its future, could become Nevada’s next new wilderness area. Legislation declaring it so died amid the political gridlock of the 112th Congress. A new proposal, backed by Nevada’s congressional delegation and Gov. Brian Sandoval, is pending before the 113th Congress. Will it pass this time around? “I suspect it will move this year, assuming that Congress functions at any level,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, who is sponsoring the legislation along with U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The range includes two wilderness study areas established by the government in 1980. They were among 110 such areas encompassing more than 5 million acres across Nevada that were targeted as potential wilderness areas...more

Deer Trail clerk returning checks for drone-hunting licenses

Mayor Frank Fields demonstrates drone hunting technique

Deer Trail can't keep up with demand for licenses to hunt unmanned aerial vehicles — even though the town hasn't yet passed an ordinance allowing them to be issued. Town clerk Kim Oldfield stopped counting two weeks ago, when the tally of personal checks made out to the town of Deer Trail hit 983 and $19,006. The checks came from all over the U.S. Oldfield said she returned as many of the checks as she could before the work became overwhelming. The town began pondering licenses to hunt drones — with a $100 bounty attached — in July. "I'm still getting the letters," she said. "I'm just throwing them in a big pile." Town residents will vote on the ordinance in a special election Oct. 8. But town resident Phil Steel, who proposed the ordinance, has already started selling novelty versions of the licenses through his own online company. On Tuesday, he said he'd sold 100 fake licenses and donated a portion of his $2,500 take to the town during the monthly board meeting, Oldfield said...more

Burning Man Crowd In Nevada Desert Tops 61,000


A federal official says more than 61,000 people have turned out so far for the weekend Burning Man outdoor art and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of northern Nevada. U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Mark Turney said Saturday that gate management was tightened Friday when organizers got close to a permitted capacity of 68,000. Turney says the crowd ebbs and flows at the festival taking place about 100 miles north of Reno. He says organizers reported one person was flown to a hospital by medical helicopter this week after being struck by a vehicle. No other serious incidents have been reported.  Attendance peaked last year at 56,000. The BLM raised the crowd limit this year after organizers agreed to security, public safety, resource management and cleanup rules. AP

Burning Man 2013

Tommy Lee Jones Plans Remake of John Wayne Classic

It’s the remake we never knew we wanted, but can’t wait to see. Tommy Lee Jones, one of the few actors in modern film who still has that cool cowboy quality is planning to remake the 1972 classic The Cowboys, which originally starred John Wayne. It is unknown if Jones plans to take the role of cattle rancher Will Anderson, played by Wayne in the original, but he has committed to write and direct the western. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Jones does take the role of Anderson, as he could easily project the authority of a cattle rancher who encounters dangerous criminals during a cattle drive. Less common for a Jones film is the fact that the original film included a handful of young boys (the cowboys of the title), who have to fend for themselves when the criminals become violent. The original film is known for one particularly violent sequence between John Wayne and costar Bruce Dern (in the role many believe secured his status as a bad-guy)...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1094

Wayne Raney - Gone With The Wind This Morning

http://youtu.be/BbuNonoswR8

Thursday, September 05, 2013

1,200 chickens are being flown from California to NY so they can retire

A large group of egg-laying hens are getting a retirement plan better than the average cubicle worker. An anonymous donor is paying $50,000 to fly the chickens from northern California to upstate New York so that they can live out the rest of their avian lives peacefully on a farm. Usually when laying hens are done producing eggs, they are killed, but these chickens will be able to roam free around farms, reports the Sacramento Bee. The 1,200 will be going to nine different sanctuaries in New York, but another 1,800 will be transferred to sanctuaries in California where they will be open for adoption from the public...more

They are calling it "Operation Chicken Airlift", I kid you not.

Iran Aggressively Recruiting ‘Invisible Army’ of Latin American Converts to Infiltrate U.S. Through ‘Soft Belly’ of the Southern Border

Iran is recruiting an “invisible army” of revolutionary sympathizers in Latin America to infiltrate the U.S. through the “soft belly” of the southern border, U.S. officials and national security experts told TheBlaze. And they’re using one website in particular to do it.  The Iranian regime’s conversion efforts are becoming increasingly aggressive, especially over the Internet, with the goal of conducting operations against United States interests in the Western Hemisphere, according to U.S. government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the nature of their work in the region. Islamoriente.com, which focuses on religion and politics, is one of Iran’s main recruitment and conversion websites for Latin America on the Internet, TheBlaze has learned. The site, which launched in 2008, includes links to Iranian television for Spanish speakers, anti-American news stories, essays on reasons to convert to Islam, chat rooms and a personal message from the Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. In August, the U.S. State Department decided to order a new review of Iranian terror activity in Latin America, based on a 500-page report issued by Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman on Iran’s terrorist strategy in the region. Nisman was the original prosecutor in the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more. Nisman believes Hezbollah, on orders from Iran, was responsible for the bombing. The report states that Iran has attempted to infiltrate “for decades, large regions of Latin America, through the establishment of clandestine intelligence stations and operative agents which are used to execute terrorist attacks when the Iranian regime decides so, both directly or through its proxy, the terrorist organization Hezbollah. These actions have been taking place within the so-called ‘export of the revolution,’ which was never masked by Tehran and is, in fact, written in their own constitution.”Nisman’s report supports the evidence U.S. officials say they’ve found in the region...more

Lynn Scarlett, top Bush official, joins The Nature Conservancy

The latest announcement concerns former Interior deputy secretary Lynn Scarlett, who's going to work for The Nature Conservancy, as managing director for public policy. TNC describes itself as "the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people."At first glance, the choice might seem, well, surprising. Scarlett, you'll recall, was second in command at the younger Bush's Interior Department. And that administration was, of course, notorious for its anti-environmentalist, pro-corporate policies. Given all that, why would a group like The Nature Conservancy hire one of Bush's top Interior officials? Well, for one, Scarlett's an outdoorswoman: an avid hiker, birder, and canoeist, she also serves on the boards of the National Parks Conservation Association, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, and the American Hiking Society. More importantly, she didn't really seem to reflect the more rapacious aspects of the administration she served. Along with her boss Gale Norton, she emphasized collaboration as a way to solve thorny public land management issues. And as we reported in a 2002 story, she worked on developing landowner incentive programs, such as tax credits and assistance designed to encourage property owners to get rid of invasive species...more

Navajo Nation Seeks To Balance Resources With Feral Horse Roundups

Ongoing drought and decades of overgrazing have devastated grasslands on the Navajo Reservation. With a wild, feral horse population in the tens of thousands, the tribe has made the difficult decision to round up as many of the animals as possible. Most of those horses will end up at a slaughterhouse in Mexico. This is a problem all across the western United States. But on the reservation it’s estimated there are somewhere between 60,000 and 75,000 feral horses. Officials say that’s four times what the land can support. So the Navajo Nation has decided to round up as many as possible and sell them. "Stray horses are dominating windmills, wells, natural springs, coming to corrals, breaking into hay barns causing damage," said Kim Johnson, who runs the reservation grazing management program. "There's also animals out there that are injured and nobody's there to take care of them. They are just dying a slow death." Johnson said earlier this summer President Barack Obama issued an emergency drought declaration that earmarked $1.3 million to deal with the feral horse problem. About 60 communities — more than half the reservation — have requested roundups. The unbranded animals are immediately sent to auction. "The unbranded ones are sold to buyers that are bonded by the Navajo Nation," Johnson said. "And I believe the destination is Mexico, to a slaughter processing plant." With the horse market at an all time low, the Navajo Nation is getting somewhere between $10 and $20 per head. That's a quarter of what it costs to bring them off the range. Recently, the tribe has officially come out in support of a horse slaughter processing plant that is trying to open closer to home in New Mexico. A lawsuit has temporarily stopped the plant from opening...more

White House praises oil drilling while blocking it on federal land

Skyrocketing domestic oil production is really starting to pay off, as oil exports caused government economists to revise economic growth in the second quarter upward by 1.7 percent to 2.5 percent growth. The Obama administration hailed the news, attributing it to the administration’s policies. However, the oil boom has been occurring on private and state lands while oil production on federal lands has been falling. “This is yet another reminder that the President’s focus on increasing America’s energy independence is not just a critical national security strategy, it is also part of an economic plan to create jobs, expand growth and cut the trade deficit,” the blog post ads. While production booms on non-federal lands and boosts U.S. exports, production on federal lands is lagging. In fact, all of the increased oil production from 2009 to 2012 took place on non-federal lands, according to the Congressional Research Service, while the share of oil production on federal lands fell by seven percent. Oil production on federal lands was down 31 percent from 2011 levels, while production on state and private lands increased by 15 percent, reports the Energy Information Administration...more

Scroll down to the Obama Commode post, watch the video and then turn it off.  I hate those videos that turn on automatically, but this one was too good to not post.

Vilsack defends forest management amid fires

By Tim Hearden, Capital Press

    U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack largely defended the federal government’s management of national forests amid criticisms that massive buildups of hazardous fuels have added to wildfires’ intensity.
    Vilsack said there’s “no question there’s been more intense fires,” but the total number of fires this summer is down a bit from a normal year. He said his agency is committed to efforts like the Collaborative Forest    Landscape Restoration Program, a series of conservation projects on federal lands.
    The secretary blamed this year’s budget sequestration for cutting the agency’s funding and said he’ll be working with Congress this fall to establish “a larger and more significant commitment to fire suppression.”
    “We are treating more board-feet and we are committed to restoration,” Vilsack told the Capital Press during a conference call with reporters on Aug. 28. “In the meantime we’re going to have to fight these fires aggressively and do it in a way that doesn’t threaten life or limb.”
    Vilsack’s comments come as about 50 major wildfires continue to burn throughout the West. Many of them are on U.S. Forest Service land, including the nearly 300-square-mile Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, which has quickly grown into one of the largest wildfires in California history.
    The fires have displaced or killed thousands of head of cattle, burned up federal grazing allotments and devastated timberland, prompting many ranchers and timber operators to call for more thinning of forests to reduce fires’ catastrophic effects.
    For instance, ranchers suffering significant cattle losses and more than 280,000 acres of burned-out grazing land in the rugged Boise National Forest in Idaho voiced frustration last week with the Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management. They said the government won’t allow grazing and timber cuts, so it just burns.
    
Its all there:  sequestration, the Forest Service budget, and the oh so effective Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program.  Its all USDA, Grade A, b.s.  And did you notice he was asked about "the federal government’s management of national forests" and that " massive buildups of hazardous fuels have added to wildfires’ intensity", but his response addressed neither?  Instead he talked about “a larger and more significant commitment to fire suppression.”  In other words, more money and more people to fight fires, nothing on Forest Service management.


    The fires’ intensity prompted U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Idaho Republican Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo to promise an effort this fall to pass a forest management plan that includes more thinning of overgrown forest stands and proper grazing.     In the House of Representatives, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., is advancing the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, which aims to re-establish a priority for actively managing federal lands through timber production and other measures.

Congrats to the Senators and Rep's who are trying to put together something that will pass this Congress.  But let's face it, this problem will not be solved until Congress grants the same authority to waive environmental laws to the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior that they've already granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Assault on NPS employee highlights danger along U.S.-Mexico border


Federal and local law enforcement are still trying to determine whether an assault on a uniformed maintenance worker at Chiricahua National Monument last week was related to cross-border activity at the southeast Arizona park, which is on a route known to be used by human traffickers and drug runners about 60 miles from the Mexican border. Karen Gonzales, 60, continues to recover this week in a hospital after having been attacked and left unconscious in a picnic-area restroom last Wednesday. Gonzales' government vehicle was recovered, hours after the assault, in the town of Douglas, which is across the border from Agua Prieta, Mexico. Yesterday, the local sheriff's office released photos of three suspects who were seen in the area in the days leading up to the attack. Even if a cross-border connection isn't found in the assault, the summer of 2013 has already been a busy one for cross-border activity on national parkland, with several incidents highlighting the dangers faced by Interior Department employees who work along the front lines of the United States' border battle. One park that has became a hot spot for illegal border crossings is Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. The most notable incident occurred in 2003, when park ranger Kris Eggle was killed as he worked with Border Patrol agents trying to catch suspects in a drug-related murder. But according to a 2009 report from the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association, the park became a hotbed for illegal cross-border activity. From 2007 to 2009, park rangers arrested and indicted 385 felony smugglers, seized 40,000 pounds of marijuana and intercepted 3,800 illegal aliens at Organ Pipe Cactus, according to the report, titled "Perilous Parklands." Today, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument continues to be a target of illegal activity. On June 30, rangers set up an observation post along Highway 85 at a traffic stop near the park visitor center. A search led to the discovery of five women, all illegal aliens, hidden under camping gear in the back of a small SUV. Rangers also pursued and arrested a seventh person who was believed to be a scout who guided the women to the SUV driver. The driver, a U.S. citizen, was arrested and believed to be involved in a human trafficking ring run out of California. "This incident is an example of targeted enforcement based on recent trends in illegal trafficking that is part of daily operations at the park," an Organ Pipe Cactus incident report stated. Along with the dangers related to illegal activity, the uptick in illegal crossings on protected federal lands has taken an environmental toll...more

And they want Obama to establish a 600,000 acre national monument on the border here in Dona Ana County?  Read the article and you will see why Sheriff Garrison, The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Retired Border Patrol Officers and others are opposing this proposal.  Click on the links to see their letters of opposition, or go here for a list of all the letters.

Land Office proposes plan for BLM property

State Land Commissioner Ray Powell on Wednesday outlined a new plan that would see the State Land Office obtaining more federal lands for economic development. The Bureau of Land Management has designated several areas as “disposal lands,” or lands that no longer fit the mission of the Bureau of Land Management. They’re unsuitable for recreation, preservation or conservation. But, Powell told Business First, they are ripe for development. “The plan is to look at the inventory there. Over the last year they (BLM) have given us a map of each of their five districts. We assessed which of those lands would fit our mission,” Powell said. Powell sees the federal lands as an opportunity to build something where nothing is being built, such as wind and solar farms, or commercial developments. “That would be a significant revenue stream for education,” Powell said. But the BLM can’t simply give the lands away on its own. Powell said he is working with the state’s Congressional delegation and trying to drum up local support to have the BLM obtain the necessary approval from Congress to grant the land it can’t use to the state...more

Counties want to take the roads less traveled -- and keep them

A bullet-riddled sign in Utah's pinyon-juniper desert warns of a winding highway ahead. It's a harbinger of the tortuous political and legal fight among Utah's counties, environmental groups and the Bureau of Land Management that could dramatically change management of the area's stark deserts, red rock canyons and backcountry lands. Key witnesses say they remember Island Park Road being used by jeeps and trucks at least as far back as the 1950s for livestock operations, farming, fishing and other recreation. That, according to an 1866 mining law, means management of the road rightfully belongs to Utah, not BLM or the National Park Service, over whose land the road crosses. The 17-mile road, which winds past ranchlands and American Indian petroglyphs to a historical ranch along the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument, is one of more than 12,000 roads that Utah and its counties last year claimed as their own in federal district court. Spanning about 36,000 miles, the road claims represent one of Utah's boldest bids yet to assert control over federal lands and, according to conservationists, the most serious threat to Utah's remaining wildlands. Utah claims the roads at stake have been used for decades by hunters, cattle ranchers, mineral speculators and motorized vehicle enthusiasts, and have either been shut down or restricted, or are in danger of closure by the federal government. "There will be economic benefits derived from these roads if they're kept open," said Anthony Rampton, Utah's assistant attorney general and lead litigation counsel for the roads lawsuits. "That benefit will come from ranching enterprises, oil and gas development, wind development, solar development, tourist income, hunting and fishing income." But unlike similar campaigns by Utah to "take back" federal lands through eminent domain or by hamstringing federal law enforcement agents, the law appears to be on Utah's side in its road battle. In March, Utah's Kane County claimed a major victory when a federal district judge awarded it rights of way over 12 of 15 roads it had claimed, four of which run through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (Greenwire, March 25). Some of those 89 miles also run through the Paria-Hackberry wilderness study area, which BLM recognized for its roadless characteristics and which environmentalists have eyed for future wilderness designation...more

Interior secretary addresses convention, says it's time to assess Hawaiian homelands trust

It's time to assess the Hawaiian homelands trust and to think about where it should be when the centennial of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act arrives in eight years, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Wednesday. It's been 30 years since a federal task force addressed the topic in 1983, Jewell said while delivering the keynote address at the 12th Annual Native Hawaiian Convention. She acknowledged newspaper articles and editorials have called for greater Interior Department oversight of the Hawaiian homelands program. "We're mindful of a balance struck by Congress and a continuing need for Interior (Department) and the state to work collectively together," said Jewell, the first interior secretary to speak to a Native Hawaiian group in Hawaii in four decades. The department will work with the Hawaiian community as it develops rules for its oversight role, Jewell said...more

'Obama' commode sparks controversy in NM town - video

Just a stone's-throw away from historic Route 66 in Tucumcari sits a sign that everyone's talking about. The sign sits atop an outhouse and says "Obama's Presidential Library." Some in town say it's in bad taste, while others support it. Either way, everyone knows about it. One man said people have been treating it like a tourist destination, taking pictures all the time. As for the man who put it up, he refused to give Target 7 his name or reveal what prompted him to construct the controversial commode, but he said he has no intention of taking it down. "It's like watching TV. If you don't like what the hell you're watching, turn the channel," said the man who put up the sign. "I'm not even certain he even deserves that level of respect, but that's my opinion." The sign and outhouse have been up for a few weeks, if not months, according to its owner. "That's my opinion ... and fortunately, that's one thing they haven't taken away from us ... is our right to our opinion," said the man who constructed the sign...more

Seems to be a lot of stories about NM and excrement today.

Here's the KOAT report.  Turn it off when done or it will keep running.

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1093

Rusty & Doug Kershaw - Hey Mae

http://youtu.be/UGgw_hQI5kE

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Here's the poop about "On The Origin of Feces"; NM #1 in Paleo Poop; Udall to introduce Poop Protection bill

Beijing may have more excrement than any city in the world, and Paris might have the most interesting sewers, but the world’s leader for breadth and depth of feces is — wait for it — Albuquerque. That’s the opinion, anyway, of New Mexico’s top poop scientist, paleontologist Adrian Hunt of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS). “New Mexico is the best place in the world for fossil poop,” said Hunt at the museum’s special one day “On the Origin of Feces” event on Sunday, Sept. 1. Because of that special geological distinction the museum’s fossil feces collection is probably second only to that of the Smithsonian Institution’s, he added. The New Mexico collection is also notable for the span of Earth’s history it covers. New Mexico’s mountains and canyons have yielded coprolites (the polite, scientific name for fossil feces) from as far back as the Permian period (250-300 million years ago) and as recent as a few thousand years ago.  The latter includes mummified dung of mammoths and ground sloths of the last ice age. Hunt has spent much of the last 22 years looking in the middle of that range, specifically at dinosaur feces. “Nobody has looked at more fossil poop than he has,” said Spencer Lucas, curator of paleontology at the NMMNHS — fully meaning it as a compliment. Among the many surprising discoveries made as a result of coprolites is the fact, for instance, that duck-billed dinosaurs ate conifers; as in pine trees. “Nobody thought that duckbill dinosaurs ate conifers,” said Lucas. The lesson there, he said, is that there’s only so much you can deduce about an ancient animal’s diet from from teeth and associated fossils. “At the end of the day you have to identify the gut contents or coprolites to know what an animal ate.”. As for how “On The Origin of Feces” went as an event, it appears to have been a hit...more

Finally, NM is #1 at something.  Its nice to know our excrement here in NM is being recognized.

Just kidding about Udall...or am I?  Here's their chance to control what little private property we have left.  

Be on the lookout for a Crap Canyon National Monument.


Utah and Forest Service split on La Sals goat plan

Rocky Mountain goats have never roamed Utah’s La Sal Mountains. Still, state wildlife officials, bent on establishing goats there, will not delay this week’s planned transplant — despite a request from the U.S. Forest Service, the agency responsible for managing this small island range rising from the desert canyon country around Moab. The project might benefit trophy hunters, but only at the expense of a fragile alpine ecosystem that has been specifically protected for scientific study, environmentalists and the Forest Service itself say. Now, critics contend the agency is failing its land-management obligations by not intervening in a project that violates the Manti-La Sal National Forest management plan. "They are ceding decision-making to a state board whose constituency is hunting," said Mary O’Brien, Utah forest program manager with the Grand Canyon Trust. "They are saying they aren’t responsible for habitat. If that’s how the system has been fixed, it needs to be changed." At the last minute, the Forest Service announced its opposition to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resource’s La Sals plan, saying wild goats could harm rare plant communities and the 2,380-acre Mount Peale Research Natural Area, as well as violate Forest Service policies...more

And would they be objecting if wolves weren't in the management plan?  Also, see Jim Beers' commentary below.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do! Jim Beers commentary on Utah goat controversy

by Jim Beers 



There have never been mountain goats in Utah's La Sal Mountains, and for that reason the U.S. Forest Service is objecting to Utah's decision to put the animals in the small island range near Moab to eventually allow trophy hunting of the goats.
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So let me get this straight.  The federal government can dump and protect wolves and grizzly bears wherever and whenever they want: and State governments, Local governments, ranchers, hunters and recreationists have no say in the matter.  But, if State governments and the hunters and allied businesses within a State decide to introduce and protect mountain goats on private and federal property that is under state authority and jurisdiction every bit as much as the private property within that state, the federal bureaucracy “objects”.  Poor babies.

Just because the federal government, bought, withheld and condemned private property nationwide under the guise of “Managing the forests”, “Restoring the wildlife” and “Sustainably managing the grazing lands”, “Minimizing fire threat” (none of which they any longer do) and because federal landowners do not pay taxes to State and Local governments; they have come to see themselves as above and beyond State and Local governments and the people they represent (i.e. all Americans). 

That “We the People” and our elected State and Local Officials let this disgraceful situation take hold like an Echinococcus tapeworm in the gut of our body politic to feed off the body politic and spread poisonous eggs to be deposited about like infected wolf scat while the tapeworm steadily deposits its' deadly cysts in vital organs of the body politic that silently but surely kill it - is our fault!  That we let this arrogance and hubris continue, is unforgivable.

Consider:

-       They won’t let me say there will be no wolves or grizzly bears on my land.

-       They scoff at Local elected Officials saying there will be local control of the presence and/or control of wolves and grizzlies within their local jurisdictions.

-       They have seduced and blackmailed State governments and their bureaucracies into believing that they are automotons enforcing programs and regulations written for and by faceless and self-serving federal bureaucracies out of some fiction like George Orwell’s 1984 or Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.Yet they will tell the State government what will and won’t be tolerated on federal 45 +/-% of the Nation) property.

If State Governments, Local governments and rural Americans don’t begin doing as Utah is proceeding to do; and stop doing as they have been doing for too long (i.e. acting like serfs under tyrants) things will continue to get worse until something snaps.  Like the news item reports, those are “Utah’s La Sal Mountains”.

Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow and is available to speak or for consulting jimbeers7@comcast.net


Jewell: No decision imminent on Alaska refuge road

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says she has set no timetable for deciding whether to approve a land exchange that would allow construction of a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska. Jewell during a six-day trip to the state flew over Izembek (EYE'-zem-bek) National Wildlife refuge and spoke to residents of King Cove, who want the road for better access to emergency flights leaving from an all-weather airport.Villagers say high winds and foul weather often make flying out of their own airport impossible. Conservation groups bitterly oppose the proposed road...more

Tester hopeful his stalled forest bill will soon pass Congress

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s long-stalled forest bill, which would newly designate acreage for both wilderness and logging in three Montana forests, could be finding some new momentum, the senator and bill supporters say. “I feel better now about its position than I ever have in the past, and significantly better,” Tester, a Democrat, said in an interview late last week. He said there’s a growing understanding in Congress not only about his bill, but also that something needs to be done to improve forest management in the West. Tester and the bill’s supporters, which include timber-mill owners, wilderness advocates and scores of recreation businesses, also are hoping a new player in the political mix – Republican Congressman Steve Daines – might provide a bipartisan push that’s been missing. In past weeks, Daines’ staff has met with both supporters and opponents of the Tester bill, and Daines himself has been talking often with Tester about the measure. Yet while Daines said he and Tester appear to share a common goal of “finding ways to unlock the gridlock we have today on increasing timber harvests in our national forest,” Daines has yet to sign on to the bill. “We’re working well together and we share some common goals,” he said in an interview. “I think there are ways to take what Jon has and make some improvements on it, to make it more beneficial for Montana and the timber industry and jobs.” Daines also is co-sponsoring a House bill that mandates far more logging, on all forests nationwide, and makes it harder to legally challenge a timber sale – a measure strongly opposed by conservationists and most Democrats...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1092

Tennessee Ernie Ford - I Ain't Gonna Let It Happen Anymore

http://youtu.be/ze7TYrIFTI0

Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Tribal Wisdom of the Plains Indians


The tribal wisdom of the Plains Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that:  "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."


However, in government more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And, of course...
12. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Are These Senators Regretting Their Export-Import Bank Votes?

by

For some lawmakers, corporate welfare is okay, unless it hurts someone in their district.
Four lawmakers from Minnesota and Michigan are up in arms over a proposed $650 million financing deal for Roy Hill, an Australian mining company. The deal, backed by the Export-Import Bank, the U.S. government’s export credit agency, is for the purchase of Caterpillar mining equipment manufactured in the U.S.
    But Senators Amy Klobuchar (D–MN), Al Franken (D–MN), Carl Levin (D–MI), and Debbie Stabenow (D–MI) don’t like this deal because Roy Hill competes with American iron ore producers, the majority of which operate in the Senators’ home states of Minnesota and Michigan. In a letter to the Export-Import Bank, the Senators claim that they are
concerned the proposed Ex-Im Bank financing and the large amount of iron capacity that it would subsidize will…substantially injure American iron ore and steel producers and their employees that are competing in the same global marketplace.
    The Senators are essentially arguing that the Export-Import Bank shouldn’t be subsidizing the purchase of U.S. mining equipment because it might hurt miners in the U.S. How ironic, considering all four of them voted for the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank just over three months ago.
    In reality, the Export-Import Bank is just bad policy, embodying corporate welfare and encouraging cronyism. The bank essentially subsidizes large business and U.S. exporters using taxpayer loans and loan guarantees to finance the purchase of U.S. exports.
    The U.S. government should get out of the export financing market altogether. Doing so would save everyone a lot of time and money. Not only would taxpayers save the money going to these huge corporations, but Members of Congress could get back to solving some of the country’s serious issues, such as the debt. But until then, these lawmakers will continue to be for corporate welfare before they were against it.
Posted in Enterprise and Free Markets [slideshow_deploy] 

$650 million either loaned or guaranteed  by the U.S...and they're worried about paying for U.S. firefighting budget...this would pay for about 2/3s of it, but is going to Australia instead...DC Deep Thinkers at their best. 


Women in Economic History

by HARRY LEE SMITH
    Women have been responsible for most of the world’s economic wealth. There is considerable evidence to support this sweeping allegation. Their past contribution to economic growth is a measure of their potential.
     Except for a short hiatus during the past 200 years, women have always been part of the work force. Women’s productivity in pre-industrial society was obvious when they labored in the fields side by side with their men. In certain peasant societies of South America and Asia they still do. In addition to farming, they raised children and kept house, which is just as much a part of economic activity as production for the market. But most importantly, women were not destructive. Their male counterparts destroyed a good deal of the wealth created by both sexes through wars and political turmoil.
     Women’s accomplishment in creating and preserving wealth has gone unrecognized due to an anomaly brought about by the Industrial Revolution. During the past two centuries, the work patterns of Western Civilization have changed drastically, particularly those of women. The development of the factory system removed the work place from the home for the first time in history. This separated women from their children, putting a strain on family ties and adversely affecting female productivity.
     Economic conditions during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution were such that entire families worked in the factories. Early attempts at restricting child labor were fruitless since they merely put less bread on the table and left the children unattended. But the wealth created by the Industrial Revolution rapidly increased living standards so that, by the middle of the nineteenth century, men were earning enough to retire their wives and children from the work force in vast numbers. It is this process, started only 200 years ago, that gave rise to the mistaken concept that women have always stayed at home doing nothing more than domestic chores. This myth was driven home by newly developing sciences such as anthropology, biology, sociology, and ethnology among others.
     Nearly all the scientific disciplines have evolved during the past 250 years and were therefore heavily influenced by conditions brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Some anthropologists such as Des-mond Morris have even projected twentieth-century cultural patterns back into the Stone Age.[1] They developed the myth of the Great Hunter, a primitive hominoid, who left the cave in search of food while his mate waited patiently at home, taking care of the children, willing to exchange sex for food, and doing little else. This myth has been effectively exploded by British anthropologist Elaine Morgan in her insightful book (whose title parodies Darwin), The Descent of Woman.[2]
     In primitive times the fundamental family unit consisted of a mother and her children living with older members of the family. Apparently men were less aware of their function and responsibility as fathers than were some advanced animals. More often than not they lived apart from the women and children, banding together in hunting-foraging groups, leaving the females to fend for themselves. These bands were the precursors of modern fraternities and other androcentric organizations.[3]
     Women had high status in primitive societies. Historian Will Durant wrote: “Since it was the mother who fulfilled most of the parental functions, the family was, at first (so far as we can pierce the mists of history) organized on the assumption that the position of man in the family was superficial and incidental, while that of the woman was fundamental and supreme.” At the time, most gods were feminine, dedicated to human fertility. In primitive society woman’s status was higher than in Periclean Greece and she would have to wait until modern times to regain that social station.
     While it is true that primitive man was a hunter, primitive woman was far more than a baby sitter. She can be credited with skinning animals for clothes and tents, spinning cotton and wool, sewing, weaving, woodworking, and making baskets and pottery. She used fire to defeat the darkness, to keep warm, and to break down inedible foods into a wide variety of digestible meals through cooking. She preserved food through salting and drying. In short, she provided the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter in which she specializes to this day. She also exchanged the products of her labor and initiated trade.  
    Men were too proud or busy as hunter-warriors to dig in the soil. But women, puttering in the back yard, discovered the relationship between seeds and crops. Will Durant put it bluntly: “Most economic advances in early society were made by women rather than men.” He goes on to point out that “women made the greatest discovery of all—the bounty of the soil.” In short, women were responsible for the Neolithic Food Revolution which was, and still is, the greatest economic advancement in history. This development, which started some 10,000 years ago and still continues, increased the human carrying capacity of the earth from five million to a billion inhabitants.[5] This ratio was not exceeded by the Industrial Revolution. It is an excellent measure of wealth creation. 


 

After wolf attacks, rancher regrets time in middle ground

Nature was hard on Idaho ranchers in August. First, the Pony and Elk Complex fires in the Mountain Home area killed more than 250 cows, according to some firefighter estimates. The Elk Complex Fire also killed about 100 head of sheep, just about the time they were ready to go to market, state officials said. Meanwhile, 176 sheep died on the west slope of the Tetons in Idaho when wolves panicked them and they ran over a ridgeline and were trampled or suffocated. The sheep were part of a 2,400-head band owned by the Siddoway Sheep Co., grazing in the area of Fogg Hill near Tetonia. Wildlife Services confirmed that wolves were the culprits, based on eyewitnesses, bite marks and tracks. At about $200 dollars a head, the Siddoway’s loss is about $35,000. For Cindy Siddoway, the wife of Idaho Sen. Jeff Siddoway, this incident and another wolf attack on their flocks last week are the latest in a long string of losses, personal attacks and death threats that have made wolf reintroduction a nightmare. “It’s painful,” she said. Siddoway, who often was a voice for working across the philosophical divide, remembers all the meetings and all the political discussion on wolves. She always opposed reintroduction, but tried to find common ground in the 1990s with its main advocate, Hank Fischer, the Northern Rockies Representative of Defenders of Wildlife. Today, she doesn’t blame the animal-rights groups who are trying to stop wolf hunting. She doesn’t target the people who were so intransigent about keeping wolves on the endangered species list that Congress stepped in. She blames Fischer, who left Defenders and often was critical when the group did not live up to his commitments. “I’m angry with Hank Fischer and Defenders of Wildlife,” Siddoway said. “I wish we would have fought harder in the first place. “You learn lessons from these experiences.”...more

Wolves in France

WOLVES IN FRANCE (Summer 2013)

by Jim Beers

The following comments were made by a French biologist writing to a famed wildlife professor in W Canada recently:

 1.       As for diseases that you mention, one of my friends - a young breeder and student in biology - demanded that the authorities analyze the wolf scats around her property and publish the results ... 2 years ago and still no reply.
She lost 120 lambs because she had fed them on hay she had made from a field where there were many scats.
The lambs died from multiple infections, septicemia or were declared unfit for consumption and those who survived are sterile .. because of Echinococcus infestation.

The lambs died from multiple infections, septicemia or were declared unfit for consumption and those who survived are sterile .. because of Echinococcus infestation.

2.       As I write, the phone has rung. A friend has just had another attack. He lost more than 20 sheep a few weeks back.

3.       This evening, 1 livestock guard dog killed, 5 guard dogs seriously injured, another found cowering in a quiet place. 3 ewes unrecoverably wounded, 2 lambs killed, how many missing? - yet every day he fires his rifle, sometimes assisted by hunters, to try to keep the wolves at bay.

4.       Over 40% of wolf attacks now occur during the day, while the shepherds and their dogs are guarding their flocks.

5.       Several shepherds have had experiences with aggressive wolves that snarl and intimidate them when they have approached a carcass.

6.       A sub-Prefect participated in a wolf defense shooting (at one of my friend's farm) .. and was followed in the dark by wolves. She made a fuss to the top Prefect and the police came to make enquiries yesterday
7.       We have 3 psychological crisis cells for the shepherds.
Breeders are suicidal, couples are breaking apart.
8.       The guard dogs harass and attack not only wildlife (especially marmots) but also hikers and cyclists.

9.       Very recently, a woman badly bitten by 2 guard dogs was transported to hospital by helicopter.
http://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2013/08/19/une-raodonneuse-mordue-par-deux-patous

 
10.   Fences and electric parks? Wolves jump over and pass underneath them or harass the sheep until they pile up and bring the parks down.   Also, as you stated, the wolves use them to corner wildlife and sheep
11.   Out of 24 wolves to be removed in the new National Wolf Plan... only one has been shot so far and one injured - they are impossible to kill. In spite of the shooting ... the wolves come back.
12.   We need a panel of independent trappers / experts to come and study our situation -
.. from Russia ? Canada? USA ? Would you possibly have any suggestions?
Carter Niemeyer from Yellowstone Park came this spring, invited by his pro-wolf friends. He said it's impossible to capture wolves in France ..
13.   I have very briefly painted the picture of the situation here.
We are totally dictated by the LCIE, the "Guidelines", Directive Habitats, the Bern convention ...
14.   NB Jean-Marc Moriceau "turned his coat". He now says that wolves never attack man ?!  He is going to organize a gigantic pro-wolf symposium in October with Boitani LCIE, a wolf park and a despicable local mayor ..  Please share this video ... almost 1500 views of the sub-titled version ..
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11itci_sheep-breeders-the-invisible-bites-msa_news
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The video linked above (Ctrl +Click) is highly recommended.  It describes, in a very understandable way the growing conflicts between French shepherds and the wolves that are invading (a valid biology word) France and expanding their range, numbers and densities just as here in the US under scurrilous government protection.

I would direct your attention on this Labor Day to the POLITICAL CORRECTNESS and implied fear (of whom government, radicals, neighbors without sheep, children propagandized in schools media, customers, who?), implicit in the final remarks on the video: “It’s not that we’re against wolves.  We just cannot work alongside them.”  Work?  As in “live” or “support our families” or support our communities”?  Work is more than self-worth or self-esteem, it is the means by which we live and support those we love and those we are responsible for.

I honestly do not know whether to be struck by such extreme Christian tolerance for a government-manufactured force destroying rural families, rural economies and a valuable French industry; or to marvel at such victim-patience with a human-created force that is destroying these family-men’s income, families, marriages, and mental well-being.  It is easy to say, “Oh those French” or “Oh those Europeans” but they are as much rural victims of gun control by a government they must serve rather than vice versa as are Asians and Russians and soon us (?) thereby making them totally helpless before wolves.  They are as much prey to unrealistic myths and imaginary dialogues with government and radical urban forces as are Lower 48 ranchers, herders, hunters, and assorted rural residents increasingly harmed by wolves. 

Wolves kill much of the available elk and decrease elk hunting; and many elk hunters and their organizations warble about not being “against wolves”.  Wolves reduce Minnesota moose to remnants no longer able to sustain moose hunting and Minnesota hunters shrug and support the state bureaucrats that denied it was happening for years.  Ranchers and sheepherders, after decades of lies and deceptions about “non-lethal controls” and “compensation, still swallow these lies as wolves invade their areas until it is too late to control the wolves in any effective manner.  Wolves grab campers by the head as they sleep and bite them through tents and lethal wolf control at the site is condemned and everyone bends over backwards to explain it away as “rare” and “unprecedented” while it is anything but that and can be expected to increase as any real controls are demeaned and avoided for political and bureaucratic benefits.  As for those experiencing harms, dangers and destruction from wolves that even they refuse to acknowledge candidly much less call for what they know must be done from now on – do NOT all live in the S of France.  They live in Lower 48 States’ rural areas as well as in European and American urban luxury condos and in rural gated estates of gazillionaires interested only in their own legacy and leaving their name on a remaking of the US into a distorted caricature of what was once the light of the world and a destination for freedom-seeking, legal immigrants from all over the world.

In more ways than Socialism and a loss of religious faith, France is becoming the US as the US is becoming France.