Tuesday, October 07, 2014

New Mexico immigration lockup draws criticism

Trailers have been set up for a school at a federal immigration detention center in an isolated New Mexico desert town. A basketball court and a soccer field have been installed. And detainees are pleading their cases over a video link with judges in Denver. Officials say that the facility, billed as a temporary place to house women and children from Central America who were among a wave of immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally this year, could remain open until next summer. "All of us would love us to see the doors close in Artesia but the reality is the need will probably be there and probably until the end of the high season, probably August next year," a government official told immigration advocates in a recent confidential meeting. The AP had access to a recording of the meeting with the official, whose name or position was not identified. The detainees at the Artesia Family Residential Center, meanwhile, are growing increasingly frustrated that they are being held with no end in sight while earlier border-crossers were released with orders to contact immigration officials later. "I'm being punished for coming here, they tell us," said Geraldyn Perez. She said she fled death threats by gangs in Guatemala...more

Elephant Butte, Caballo lakes boosted by monsoon rains

Water levels at Elephant Butte Lake and Caballo Reservoir have climbed in recent weeks, thanks to regional monsoon rainfall. While the increases aren't on the scale of what happened in 2013, when precipitation resulted in steep water-level spikes, they're also nothing to overlook, local water officials said. Water levels in both lakes typically reach their lowest point of the year around the end of the summer irrigation seasons in Doña Ana County, El Paso County and Mexico — three areas that all rely upon the reservoirs to water their crops. In all, the volume of water in Elephant Butte Lake rose 32 percent since its end-of-irrigation-seasons low point on Aug. 2, according to numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water releases from both reservoirs. An extra 41,600 acre-feet of new water flowed into the lake, boosting the total as of late last week to about 172,500 acre-feet, or about 8.5 percent full...more

Flood damage cuts off water to NM farmers

Farmers who rely on the Carlsbad Irrigation District for the water that grows their crops got a jolt of bad news last week. The Main Canal, Lateral 19C, Black River Canal, and Black River Diversion Dam were all significantly damaged due to the recent flooding in the Loving and Malaga areas, according to Dale Ballard, manager of the CID. The concrete liner in the main canal sustained significant damage in numerous locations west of Higby Hole Road. The north side Black River Diversion Dam was breached at the point where the Black River Supply Canal enters the dam, and much of the Black River Canal is filled with gravel and other debris. Last Monday, CID maintenance tried to begin repairs on the main canal. "Even though the canal banks appear to be dry, the soil in this area is extremely saturated," Ballad said. Water continues to seep into the canal from standing water on its west side, creating puddles of standing water in and around the areas that need to be repaired...more.

Wyoming's lawmakers might use law to remove wolves from endangered species list

Wyoming's wolves are back on the endangered species list again, and this time the state's lawmakers might come up with a solution. Following Montana and Idaho's one-of-a-kind legislation, Wyoming's congressional delegation said it might look into taking wolves off the list by law, and keeping them off. “I think we have to consider legislative action now. I don’t see any other recourse,” said U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis. “We have done everything the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked of us and more.” The Fish and Wildlife Service delisted wolves in Wyoming in 2012, allowing the state to manage them, including overseeing the past two hunting seasons. Washington D.C.’s U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson took control from Wyoming on Sept. 23 and sent it back to the feds. Even though wolves were recovered with genetic diversity, Wyoming’s plan was not adequate to support continued recovery, she ruled. At issue was a guarantee Wyoming made to keep more than the minimum number of wolves required by law in the state. Wyoming wrote the promise in an addendum instead of including it in the formal plan. The state filed an emergency rule adding the addendum into the regulation, but Jackson denied the request Tuesday, telling the Fish and Wildlife Service to start the delisting process over again. “The fact is that no matter what we do and no matter how successful we are at recovering the wolf, certain groups remain unsatisfied and unwilling to accept victory,” Lummis said. “Now it is time to pursue a legislative solution.”...more

Proposal to protect fisher cites pot farm threat

Citing a threat from rat poison used on illegal marijuana plantations, federal biologists on Monday proposed Endangered Species Act protection for West Coast populations of the fisher, a larger cousin of the weasel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published notice in the Federal Register that it wants to list the fisher as a threatened species in Oregon, California and Washington. The full proposal was expected Tuesday. The fisher is the second species in the West for which biologists have formally recognized a threat from marijuana cultivation. A recovery plan for coho salmon calls for reducing pollution from pesticides and fertilizers used on pot plantations...Scientists are also working to see how much the poisons are affecting the northern spotted owl...more

The feds can't manage their own lands which then creates a threat to a species.  The feds  then designate the species and identify critical habitat, which then punishes the legal users of the federal land and any private land owner in the area.  Nice work.




State delays decision on controversial elk plan

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has delayed until November its commission’s consideration of a controversial 2015 elk-brucellosis management plan aimed at disease outbreaks in the Paradise Valley. The Fish and Wildlife Commission was scheduled to take up the issue on Oct. 16. The complicated and controversial issue has pitted hunters against landowners and state and federal agencies. Cattle ranchers would disagree, saying they are bearing the brunt of a disease that can limit their income as well as the genetic makeup of valuable cattle herds. Ranchers fear brucellosis because it can cause pregnant cattle to abort. An outbreak can force the killing of infected cattle and quarantining of a herd. The disease is believed to be transferred when cattle come in contact with birthing material from an infected elk. Keeping the animals separate when elk are giving birth is believed to be an effective tool to control outbreaks. At issue is FWP’s plan to allow up to 250 elk to be taken by permitted landowners and by hunters during special hunts meant to disperse elk. In 2015, the hunts could take place much later into the spring elk calving season than has been previously allowed and also could provide kill permits to landowners...more

Miners to march on EPA against climate rule

Hundreds of current and retired miners and their families are set to march through Washington on Tuesday to protest the administration's signature climate rule on power plants. The past and present members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) will hold a rally and march to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in D.C. They declare the rule proposed by the EPA on carbon pollution from existing power plants will result in the loss of "tens of thousands" of coal mining jobs...more

Environmental groups call for BLM to create comprehensive leasing plan

CHACO CANYO — A group of environmentalists are calling for the Bureau of Land Management to compose a comprehensive leasing plan for the lower San Juan Basin in areas near Chaco Canyon National Historic Park. "We're not against oil and gas drilling, but it has to be done properly," said Bruce Gordon, president of EcoFLight, during a flight over the park and its surroundings on Monday morning. The Partnership for Responsible Business and the New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce organized the flyover tour that included one tribal leader and a handful of journalists. "The biggest thing is the landscape," said Keenan King, who works with the Partnership for Responsible Business. Barbara West, a former Chaco Canyon park superintendent, and Mike Eisenfeld, with the San Juan Citizens Alliance, flew above the park on Sunday evening. They were interviewed after the flight in Farmington on Monday. The group agreed that the BLM needed to create a "Master Leasing Plan" that would take into consideration keeping the park largely unspoiled for visitors...more

Conservation group sues feds over mouse habitat

SANTA FE – WildEarth Guardians has followed through on a promise it made in July to sue the U.S. Forest Service for allowing livestock grazing in streamside areas in the Santa Fe National Forest thought to be critical habitat for the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse. The Santa Fe-based conservation group filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on Wednesday, maintaining that the Forest Service has a mandatory duty under the Endangered Species Act to ensure grazing activities in the forest won’t jeopardize the mouse’s continued existence. The Forest Service is catching flak from both sides. Last month, ranchers sued the agency, arguing that Forest Service plans to block off water and grazing areas for mouse habitat go too far. In June, the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse was recognized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species requiring habitat protection...more

Epic Drought Impacting California’s Clean Energy Goals

...Reduced rainfall means that California reservoirs are continuing to shrink, with water levels at just 52 percent of their historic average. That’s not just a problem for California’s $42.5 billion agricultural industry, which grows and produces much of the country’s fruits, nuts and vegetables. It is also is cutting into the state’s electricity generation. That’s because California sources a significant portion of its electricity generation from hydropower, so less precipitation means less electricity. Before the drought, California routinely generated about 20 percent of its electricity from hydropower during the period of January through June. But for the first six months of 2014, according to the U.S. Energy information Administration (EIA), that productivity has been slashed in half, to just 10 percent. To make up for the shortfall, California’s renewable energy industry has picked up some of the slack. Wind now accounts for more electricity generation than hydro – in part because of the drought, but also because of greater installed wind capacity. Solar, too, is making a big contribution. On clear sunny days, by midafternoon, solar can supply the state with 14 percent of its power needs. But California has also needed to rely much more heavily on natural gas to cover for lost hydro. From January through June of this year, natural gas power plants were generating 16 percent more electricity than average. This wouldn’t be necessarily be a problem if California didn’t have ambitious plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing clean hydropower with more natural gas can lead to a spike in the wrong direction. Complicating matters further is the closure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. When the plant closed, California lost about 18 billion kilowatt-hours of carbon-free electricity. As Forbes notes, the electricity from that one plant is equal to all of the solar and wind in the state combined. With the plant offline, the state lost a lot of ground on its journey towards a low-carbon future...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1310

Its gonna be a Duet Week on Ranch Radio.  First up is Ernest Tubb & Red Foley - Too Old To Cut The Mustard.  Recorded in 1952 for Decca.

http://youtu.be/ZIUiQOeI_Ek

Monday, October 06, 2014

Mexico Energy Reform: Border Pipeline Challenge In Chihuahua

Mexico’s oil and gas industry is about to open up to the rest of the world — and American oil and gas companies are eager to get a foothold in a market closed to outsiders since 1938. That’s the year Mexico nationalized its oil industry and ordered American and other foreign companies out. But before major exploration can take place, Mexico has to create an infrastructure to support it — roads and especially pipelines. And that’s where the challenges begin. In the last 12 months, there’s been a five-fold increase in pipeline capacity joining the U.S. and Mexico. The industry’s lobby group — America’s Natural Gas Alliance — says it’s all tied to Mexican energy reform. The pipelines are part of a nationwide infrastructure build-up in Mexico to support the new energy production that Americans want to be a part of. At an ejido in Chihuahua state residents say they've been told by a local businessman that their 1,500 acre parcel about an hour from the Rio Grande is one of the properties under consideration for a series of five natural gas pipelines that Mexico's state-owned oil and gas agency Pemex wants to build along or near the border, including two that would import American energy. At a nearby, privately owned ranch, we spoke with an 84-year-old rancher and farmer, his skin burnished by the Mexican sun with gnarled fingers that speak to a life on the land. "We have a lot of doubt about the gas pipeline and which land it will be built on," he said. He said two weeks ago, engineers came to his ranch. He says they showed him plans for a pipeline that went through one of his ranches. He says the engineers told him they wanted to pay for the right to use his and his neighbors’ lands. "I'm not renting or selling this property," he said he told them. There's another challenge for U.S. energy interests. It is the elephant in the room as foreign oil and gas executives decide whether or not to enter Mexico's new energy regulatory environment. Pipelines across much of Mexico are vulnerable to organized crime. In the last year, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office and Pemex allege criminals have drilled nearly 2,500 pipeline taps so far this year, up more than a third from the same period in 2013. The stolen hydrocarbons are estimated by Pemex to be worth more than a billion dollars. All of this poses problems for American energy interests. They need access and security...more

Issa pushes EPA chief to resolve investigator dispute

Congress’s top investigator has told EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to resolve a long-running dispute that Rep. Darrell Issa says is undermining the agency inspector general’s ability to investigate misconduct. In a letter to Ms. McCarthy last week, Mr. Issa said she has done little to resolve the dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general, which was set up by Congress to root out fraud and abuse, and the EPA’s homeland security office, which has no statutory authority. Mr. Issa, California Republican, said the inspector general’s work “continues to be compromised” by the feud with the homeland security office, which the inspector general said interfered in the early stages of the probe into notorious time and attendance fraudster John Beale, a high ranking EPA official now in prison after he pretended to be a CIA spy, bilking the agency of nearly $900,000 in pay. The homeland security office also came under scrutiny when one of its executives was accused of assault by an inspector general agent, Elisabeth Heller Drake. Ms. Drake told Congress that a senior official, Steve Williams, displayed “inexplicable anger and aggressiveness” when she went to the office as part of an ongoing investigation...more

Federal Lunch Standard Costs To Triple

School districts will take on lunch costs that are expected to triple in fiscal year 2015, leading to financial strain as fewer students participate in the program, the School Nutrition Association said Tuesday. "School nutrition professionals have led the way in promoting improved diets for students and are committed to serving healthy meals," said SNA CEO Patricia Montague. "Despite all of these efforts, fewer students are eating school meals, and the escalating costs of meeting overly prescriptive regulations are putting school meal programs in financial jeopardy."  The group, which represents 55,000 school nutrition professionals in the U.S., said the increase is based on USDA estimates that "will force local school districts and states to absorb $1.22 billion in new food, labor and administrative costs in Fiscal Year 2015 alone, up from $362 million in additional costs in FY 2014." SNA said districts are further strained as fewer students are participating in the program since the changes went into effect. More than one million fewer students choose school lunch each day, which cuts revenue for schools, the group notes...more

Wilderness as economic stimulus? A closer look at the evidence

By Shawn Regan, contributor

There are many good reasons to love wilderness. The Wilderness Act, which passed 50 years ago this year, describes several of them: outstanding opportunities for solitude, primitive and unconfined recreation experiences, and the preservation of special places "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man."

As a former wilderness ranger, these values resonate with me. More than 100 million acres of land have been designated as "wilderness" since 1964, and in my view they include some of the most spectacular landscapes imaginable.

But as hard-fought wilderness bills languish in Congress, some are claiming there's another reason to love wilderness areas – they're good for local economies.

This economic argument is a central part of wilderness advocacy today. Protecting lands from development, many say, provides a much-needed boost to rural communities. These lands attract workers, entrepreneurs and investors across all sectors while boosting income and employment in surrounding areas.

But what does the research actually say about the economic effects of wilderness designations? I took a close look at the peer-reviewed academic research and found few rigorous studies and little evidence to support the claim that wilderness leads to economic stimulus. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, consider what the best available research says.

First off, there is disagreement on how natural amenities such as wilderness should affect economic outcomes in theory. On the one hand, wilderness designations limit resource development and could hinder income and employment in extractive industries. On the other hand, wilderness could improve quality of life and attract new businesses, migrants and tourists. Adding to the confusion, there is evidence that workers might accept lower wages, longer periods of unemployment and higher land prices to live in areas rich in natural amenities such as wilderness.

So there's confusion about the theory, but what do existing studies find when they look at the data? In short, not much. The first empirical study, published in 1998, found no evidence that wilderness had an effect on employment or population growth in Western counties during the 1980s. A similar study in 1999 found no effect of wilderness on income, population or employment growth in rural counties in several Western states. Two more studies in 2002 and 2003 were no different: Wilderness had no effect on employment or wage growth.

More recent studies come to similar conclusions. A study in 2006 by Ray Rasker of Headwaters Economics champions the role that public lands play in stimulating income growth in the West, but a closer look reveals that he is unable to demonstrate a statistically significant effect associated with wilderness lands. Another study by Rasker and his colleagues, published in 2013, emphasizes that protected public lands (including wilderness) had a small positive relationship with three measures of income. Less obvious was the fact that seven other economic measures they examined had zero effect.

So what about the popular claim that wilderness drives economic growth? Studies that reach this conclusion are based on simple correlations. None are rigorous enough to suggest that wilderness causes growth. Two studies that are often cited — one by Paul Lorah and Rob Southwick in 2003 and another by Patrick Holmes and Walter Hecox in 2004 — report a positive correlation from wilderness and population, income and employment growth. But once additional factors are controlled for in more detailed studies, these positive relationships disappear.

More research is needed to better understand the effects of wilderness. But a critical look at the existing studies makes this much clear: There is little or no evidence that wilderness bolsters economic growth. When environmentalists invoke economic arguments to support wilderness, they are exaggerating the best-available research and undermining other more compelling wilderness values.

Wilderness advocates shouldn't hang their hats on economic arguments. There are plenty of good reasons to love wilderness areas — but there's just no evidence that economic arguments are one of them.

Regan is a research fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Mont., and a former backcountry ranger for the National Park Service.

The Hill 


The Stunning Video When "Camera On A Drone" Entered An Active Volcano



Earlier this week, a bunch of guys from DJIGlobal had a brilliant idea: let's take the infamous "camera on a stick" from Go Pro(laroid), stick it on a drone, and dump the whole thing above the magma caldera of Iceland's most recent active volcanic eruption at Bardarbunga, while filming every step of the way.

The resulting video is stunning, even if the camera melted in the process.

 http://youtu.be/CjOKE3puK3E

More Controversy As Gulf Restoration Projects Begin

Government officials have approved tentative plans to spend approximately $627 million on 44 separate projects to facilitate environmental recovery from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. And in true American fashion, environmentalists are furious that $58 million of this restoration effort will go towards an Alabama beachfront hotel which they argue will not help to restore the habitats of the Gulf. Actually, no, they argue that it will definitely hurt the habitats of the Gulf region. BP, of course, provided an initial $1 billion back in 2011 as a down payment for the coastal restoration efforts after the Deepwater Horizon spill. This money is intended to go towards restoring the local environment in an effort to improve public access to the whole of the Gulf of Mexico. oil-split As terrible as it might seem “public access” does, actually, include beachfront hotels which, by the way, help to stimulate economic growth as travelers find more places to stay. And its not like this is an arbitrary decision. Five Gulf states and four federal agencies were among the long list of trustees which had to reach a consensus for spending the money. So far, two earlier phases have already been approved, totaling $71 million. BP will probably have to pay even more in penalties once their environmental fines are levied. But the biggest sum of money—$318 million—will serve restoration efforts on four barrier islands just off the Louisiana coast, an area eroding quickly...more

It only took 4 years to approve a "tentative" plan.  Wonder how many years it will now take for the projects to actually come to fruition?


The green snot taking over the world's rivers

It began with a few small strange patches of slime, clinging to the rocks of the Heber River in Canada. Within a year, the patches had become thick, blooming mats. Within a few years the mats had grown into a giant green snot. And within a few decades this snot had spread around the world, clogging up rivers as far away as South America, Europe and Australasia. This snot, which is still flourishing today, is caused by a microscopic alga, a diatom that goes by its scientific name Didymosphenia geminata. It has become so notorious it has its own moniker, Didymo. People have been blamed for the sudden, global explosion of this tiny organism, unwittingly carrying the algae from river to river on fishing gear, boats and kayaks. The huge snots it forms have wreaked havoc in waterways, forcing governments and environmental organisations to initiate huge and costly clean-up operations. But underlying the snots’ strange appearance is an even stranger story. About Didymo itself, about what it is, and how it behaves...more

As wolves return, so do tensions with ranchers

When the cougar trackers finally figured out it wasn’t a big cat that was wiping out Dave Dashiell’s livestock, the wolves already were on their way to killing or wounding 33 sheep. By then even dogs, traps and specialists armed with lights, paintball guns and rubber bullets couldn’t keep the wolves and livestock apart. “There were days when I walked down a drainage and when I came back two hours later there was a dead lamb where I walked,” Dashiell’s tearful wife, Julie, told a state wildlife panel last weekend. And by the time a government aerial hunter aboard a helicopter unintentionally shot and killed a breeding female wolf amid the cedar, grand fir and thick underbrush of Dashiell’s Stevens County grazing land, the outrage had reached almost everyone. Less than a decade after the state’s first wolf pack in 70 years returned to Eastern Washington’s timbered mountains and dry-grass lowlands, tempers have returned to a boil. But with the state’s wolf packs now numbering 15 and wolf populations growing 38 percent in six years, these conflicts, in some ways, are the price of success...more

9/11 terrorists caught testing airport security months before attacks: secret docs

At least three eyewitnesses spotted al Qaeda hijackers casing the security checkpoints at Boston’s Logan Airport months before the 9/11 attacks. They saw something and said something — but were ignored, newly unveiled court papers reveal. One of the witnesses, an American Airlines official, actually confronted hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta after watching him videotape and test a security checkpoint in May 2001 — four months before he boarded the American Airlines flight that crashed into the World Trade Center. The witness alerted security, but authorities never questioned the belligerent Egyptian national or flagged him as a threat. “I’m convinced that had action been taken after the sighting of Atta, the 9/11 attacks, at least at Logan, could have been deterred,” said Brian Sullivan, a former FAA special agent who at the time warned of holes in security at the airport. The three Boston witnesses were never publicly revealed, even though they were interviewed by the FBI and found to be credible. Their names didn’t even appear as footnotes in the 9/11 Commission Report. But what they testified to seeing — only revealed now as part of the discovery in a settled 9/11 wrongful-death suit against the airlines and the government — can only be described as chilling...more

Had some folks just done their jobs...instead we got stuck with the PATRIOT Act and god knows what else.

Dropping the TSA: 19th Airport Joins More Efficient Private Screening Program

Tired of long lines at TSA airport checkpoints? Today, the Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) began a transition to private security screeners rather than Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners in a change that promises more efficient security measures. SFB just joined the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program (SPP) that allows airports to replace TSA screeners with more flexible and cost-effective screening services provided by private companies and overseen by the TSA. While this may seem strange to many Americans who have grown accustomed to TSA-manned checkpoints, it really isn’t abnormal for airports to manage their own security with government regulation and oversight. After all, most European airports are run this way, and now 19 airports in the U.S. are as well...more

Texas Company issues massive ground beef recall after metal complaints

Sam Kane Beef Processors of Corpus Christi, Texas, has recalled 90,987 pounds of ground beef products after consumers complained about finding pieces of metal inside the meat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Saturday. The USDA said four consumers complained, with one person reporting a chipped tooth. The pieces of metal were reported to be about 3mm, a USDA press release said. Alfred Bausch, general manager for the company, said all the products were shipped to Texas retail outlets. "It was not a food safety issue," Bausch said. "It was a foreign object and the foreign object was very small." The USDA said the products bear the establishment number "337" inside the USDA mark of inspection. In addition, the news release said this is a Class II recall, meaning "there is a remote probability of adverse health consequences from the use of the product." The company website says Sam Kane Beef was founded in 1949. A group of Texas ranchers and cattlemen purchased the company in 2013, the website said...more

Old-fashioned commute - Townsend students drive tractors to school to honor ag heritage


Broadwater High School senior Jenna Shearer drove to school in style on Friday. The 1964 Massey Ferguson tractor she piloted rumbled down Second Street and into the school parking lot, where she parked it among the 10 other tractors. Shearer’s unusual transportation was part of Agriculture Heritage Day in Townsend Schools, an event organized by school teachers and parents to celebrate the culture of farming and ranching around Townsend. “We just want to honor our heritage in Broadwater County and make kids aware of how important agriculture is, and the kids that are farmers or ranchers allow them an opportunity to be proud of what they do,” Jill Flynn, school counselor and one of the organizers, said...more

Farmers can buy replacement livestock lost in drought until 2015

Farmers and ranchers in all or part of 30 states who were forced to sell livestock due to drought since 2010 will have until the end of the 2015 tax year to buy replacements and defer capital gains tax on forced sales. Internal Revenue Service officials announced that the one-year extension will apply in most cases and that additional extensions may be granted in areas where severe drought continues. It applies to sales of draft, dairy and breeding livestock...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1309

Its Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and we bring you Lyle Lovett - Cowboy Man.  The tune is on his 1986 CD titled Lyle Lovett. 

http://youtu.be/LIyhTNFsozo

Sunday, October 05, 2014

FBI Interested in Texas “Doomsday” Ecologist who said Ebola the Solution to Human Overpopulation

Ebola, a form of hemorrhagic fever in which the internal organs of the victim liquefy, has one of the highest rates of fatality of any known contagious disease at approximately 80-90% and is one of the most contagious diseases known to medical science. It is also high on the list of possible bio-terror weapons of concern to international law enforcement and military security agencies. Tom Clancy’s thriller novel, Rainbow Six describes a group of radical environmentalists that wants to rid the world of people using a modified version of Ebola. All of which is why the FBI is interested in talking to Texas ecologist and herpetologist, Dr. Eric R. Pianka, who suggested at a meeting of the Texas Academy of Sciences that an airborne version of Ebola that would wipe out 90% of the human population was the solution to the human “overpopulation problem.” This week, Pianka has been in the Texas media saying that he was not advocating bio-terrorism, but also told the Austin Statesman that he is meeting with local FBI officials in response to complaints that he is advocating biological terrorism. “Someone has reported me as a terrorist,” he said.  On the day he was named by the Academy as 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist, Pianka declared that AIDS was not killing off the surplus human population fast enough. What is needed, he said, is Ebola to kill 5.8 billion of the world’s 6 billion plus humans. The speech received a prolonged standing ovation at the Academy’s annual meeting at Lamar University in Beaumont. The Seguin Gazette quotes Pianka saying, “Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine.” ”[Disease] will control the scourge of humanity,” Pianka said in his March 3 speech. “We’re looking forward to a huge collapse.” He said, “We’ve grown fat, apathetic and miserable,” and described the world as a “fat, human biomass.” The syllabus for one of Pianka’s courses reads, “Although [Ebola Zaire] Kills 9 out of 10 people, outbreaks have so far been unable to become epidemics because they are currently spread only by direct physical contact with infected blood…Ebola Reston, is airborne, and it is only a matter of time until Ebola Zaire evolves the capacity to be airborne.” The speech was first reported by popular science and computer writer, Forrest Mims III on the website of the Citizen Scientist. Mims said he was concerned that in this age of international security tensions, “fertile young minds,” might take Pianka’s assertions as suggestions...more

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy




by Julie Carter

Most folks think that if a cowboy has a brain, he wears it under his hat. Truth of the matter is everything of importance that he might know is written in a little book carried in his shirt pocket. In fact, it's been said that it was very reason for inventing pockets for shirts - that and a place to carry cigarette papers and a bag of Bull Durham.

The tally book usually sports an embossed name on the cover endorsing the company that provided it to the cowboy. This is typically a local bank that has a vested interest in the cowboy keeping track of his business.

It's his little black book, often red or green, but has little if anything to do with collecting phone numbers of girls, albeit there is occasionally a need to jot one of those down.

Preprinted dates and categories in the book mean nothing. The cowboy keeps his own style of books and may mark the spot he needs to turn to often with a folded dollar bill or a toothpick.

The data that may set the course for risk management, purchases, hedging, selling or retained ownership could ultimately end up on some computer run by a guy in high-water britches and a pocket full of mechanical pencils. However, the origin of all cattle information is first recorded in the cowboy's tally book.

Similarities to methods and information end there. The detailed cowboy will record the exact date cattle were purchased, their weight and price per pound. He'll record when they were moved from one place to the other and give an estimated weight based in prior knowledge of gain per day in a specific pasture.

Death loss will be noted and counts corrected. Medicine given is accounted for, as are dates, amounts and types of feed and supplementation.

Dates are noted when the bulls are turned in with cows, how many, where and when they were pulled back out of the pastures.

At branding time, numbers of new baby heifers and steers calves are recorded from each pasture and how many are left as bull calves. Those same calves' weaning weights and price per pound will be recorded in the fall, giving historical value to the tally books that end up in a desk or dresser drawer to be found by the generations to come.

A few pages may be dedicated to phone numbers for the feed salesman, parts house, veterinarian and fuel dealer. Others will detail water well information, pump jacks and windmills, including when it was last pulled, if new leathers were put in place and when pipe or sucker rod was replaced.

The personal nature of the business showed up when the cowboy recorded information about a particular cow, one of a thousand, like it was someone he knew personally. The notation would read, "White-faced cow, short in the hind quarters, 3 years old, late to breed, check next year." Or "motley-faced cow, horn cut, open last spring, light bred now.”

All this critical information in one little book that, in theory, is close at hand and available, always.

But things happen. If he bends over a drinker to fix a broken float and the pocket flap wasn't snapped, the book falls in the water and it's a cussing-fit accident.

If the little woman snags up his dirty shirt off the floor at the end of the day and loads it in the washing machine without first checking the pockets, it's the end of the free world.

There's no question, there are now computer cowboys who ride a variety of noisy, expensive motorized "horses," but even so, they still have a little tally book in their shirt pocket. Likely, right next to their smart phone.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com

A national prayer when it is needed

Halt the tyrannists
A national prayer when it is needed
A reminder from the Victors
By Stephen L. Wilmeth



            I turned the news off.
            I am so sick of hearing the reign of incompetence updates that the words no longer matter. Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Lois Lerner, Hillary Clinton, IRS, James Clapper, Benghazi, global warming, the national debt, national monuments by orgasm, backroom bargaining for endangered species, VA, Susan Rice, ISIS, Valerie Jarrett, John Podesta, headless press secretaries, ebola, the American gigolo (he with the newest face lift), and the fellow at the helm who seems to have to read about the majority of new scandals in the press are giving hourly reasons why we live in an insane asylum of differentiated reality.
            It all came to a head when the Martianesque Cajun, James Carville, told Bill O’Reilly we just need to give the investigation process time to work things out.
No, it doesn’t matter which scandal he was referencing.  Just change the names of the pretentious bit players and the rogue agencies they oversee, and … it is all the same.
            To the Victors
            I have to admit I am reading Dugard and O’Reilly’s Killing Patton.           
It is not my first foray into the life of General George S. Patton. I have long been fascinated with my own selection of the Big Three battlefield geniuses of our history. I won’t array them cardinally, but Daniel Morgan, Thomas Jackson, and George Patton fill the bill.
Morgan had the least to work with. He demonstrated the American propensity of dealing with being outnumbered. He attacked.
Jackson may have been the most dangerous because, never seeking earthly recognition, he didn’t care. He was beholding only to his Lord God for strength and reassurance. When he left the fire overlooking what would become the killing fields of Fredericksburg after his cup of coffee with General Lee on the morning of the battle, his vision was clearly focused.
“Kill them all,” was his full intention, and he believed he could.
Patton was shielded similarly through his faith and devotion to God. His diary excerpts are most revealing. His major obstacle was he was fighting with a crew of generals that were all seized with varying amounts of the same differentiated reality that threatens to destroy our world as we know it today. Personal ambition and the unleashed patriot warrior were still too threatening in their eyes for full nomination of trust.
Patton was right far more times than he was wrong. Furthermore, the biggest threats to our modern world were incubated because his views of victory by the western world were deemed too offensive to civilized man. As a result, power was ceded to the continuing forces of evil that didn’t care a hoot about what the western world deemed was civilized.
We see the results today.
The prayers
The prayer that Patton ordered the Third Army Chaplain, Colonel James H. O’Neill, to write and distribute in the sodden days following the failure at Ft. Driant was not what Christians would associate with the proper bounds of reverence.
“Chaplain, how much preying is being done in the Third Army?” Patton barked.
“I’m afraid to admit it,” O’Neill said. “But, I do not believe that much praying is going on.”
Patton sat looking out the window of his office at the foul weather that continued to hamper their advance. Finally, the General made the decision and ordered the chaplain to craft a prayer that the Almighty would accept from the men of the Third Army.
 “We must ask God to stop these rains,” Patton ordered. “These rains are the margin that holds defeat or victory.”
The order was obeyed. A quarter million copies were printed on three by five cards and distributed to every man for his personal invocation.
The prayer asked:
Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.
In his diary a week later, Patton noted that it had rained less since his prayer. History would demonstrate he advanced from victory to victory including pulling Bradley, Hodges, and Eisenhower’s fat out of the fire in the leadership and intelligence debacle of the Battle of the Bulge. The Christian warrior orchestrated the key victory that broke the back of the Third Reich in the West. It was a superhuman feat.
Dugard revealed a lengthier and personally consecrated prayer from the general days later on the horrific march to reach the 101st Airborne Division surrounded at Bastogne. Patton again determined he had no recourse other than to seek divine intervention to accomplish his promise of reaching those men by Christmas Day, 1944.
He entered the Catholic chapel alone. In the small narthex he took his helmet off followed by the removal of his gloves. He walked into the darkened sanctuary and knelt. He put his reading glasses on and unfolded a prayer he has crafted for this very solemn occasion. He bowed his head …
SIR, this is Patton talking,” he convened the discussion with the Lord.
“The past fourteen days have been straight hell. Rain, snow, more rain, more snow … and I am beginning to wonder what’s going on in Your headquarters. Whose side are You on anyway?”
Patton believed that faith was vital when confronted with something that appeared impossible. The prayer continued in straight talk that matched the intensity of the horrors he and his American boys witnessed daily. He concluded the plea with at least these words:
I don’t like to complain unreasonably, but my soldiers from Meuse to Echternach are suffering tortures of the damned. Today, I visited several hospitals, all full of frostbit cases, and the wounded are dying in the fields because they cannot be brought back for medical care.”
When he finished, he left the chapel and got in his vehicle. He knew exactly what he had to do and where he had to go. He went to his troops and encouraged them. He had to demonstrate his commitment to them and to the cause that made them unique in the world. His prayer was answered and it was manifested in his actions and the actions of those men. It was given to them in the context of straight talk within themselves, and … their relationship with their Savior.
Our prayer
Are we any different?
Yes, we are. We don’t have a single leader that unites us in the cause that made us unique in the world of our fathers. So, let’s approach this issue in the manner that its seriousness implores. With unvarnished talk, we must ask God to stop this storm of destruction.
“Sir … our Lord God … this is the America citizenry with duties, responsibilities and system sustaining investments talking.”
“These days reflect straight hell. The haze of educated incapacity and progressive secularism surrounds everything we do, and … we are beginning to wonder what’s going on in our line of communication with you. We want You on our side.”
“Too often, our chaplains aren’t standing unbending in the faith of our fathers, of Abraham. Few recognize the time of the Crusades has commenced again, and, indeed, we will be riding tanks instead of chargers in our ultimate defense … if there is to be a successful defense.
Up until now, we have gone along with our leaders, but, for too long, we have witnessed their incapacity to affect any change that honors you and the foundational gifts of our Judeo-Christian union.
Sir, we can’t help but feel that we have offended You in many ways, and You have lost sympathy for our cause.
We don’t want to complain unreasonably, but our nation is following the path of the damned. Grant us fair conditions for the resurrection of the ideals of our biblical foundation. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee, that, armed with Thy Power, we may advance from darkness again into the light of your love, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, both internal and external, and establish Thy justice among men and nations.
Amen.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Imbecilic career politicians and professional bureaucrats are sinking OUR boat.”

Baxter Black - Veterinary medicine isn't what it used to be

...Livestock have a calculable value, expressed as per head or dollars per pound. With the exception of the occasional ranch horse, there is no anthropomorphological attachment as exists in the pet world. This has always lead the cowman to try and treat the animal himself. If the critter dies, it only evens out what the vet would charge … no loss. But in the last three years things have changed!

Droughts, herd depletion, and demand for beef of all kinds have caused the value of cattle to soar!

Business for rural veterinarians has picked up and continues to grow. Maybe there’s hope. But the good cowman is being backed into a corner. He considers himself capable of pulling a calf, or treating the scours, deciding what vaccine to use, at least he always has…he even did a Caesarian once…’course the cow was dead.

He’s a hard workin’, stubborn, do-it-yerself, thrifty cowman and it bothers him to ask for help, especially if it costs money! It goes against his cowboy mentality. What are the odds?

“Harold, she’s been tryin’ to calve since noon. He’s worth $500 when he hits the ground. It’s time. Unhook those chains and put down the come-along.”

“But…”

“Call Doc Smith.”

“But … but … what if he charges mileage?”

Ebola



Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1308

Closing out our "Crow Flats Country" Week is Walter Smith - God's Getting Worried.  Recorded in NYC in February of 1931 and available on his Document CD Walter Smith & Friends, Vol. 2. A short bio is here.

http://youtu.be/556QPXEXIog

Saturday, October 04, 2014

Enviromentalists Should Love, Love, Love Fracking


by Stephen Moore

President Barack Obama raised a lot of eyebrows when he declared in his United Nations climate change speech: “Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution by more than any other nation on Earth.”

That’s absolutely true. And it’s remarkable because we as a nation didn’t ratify the Kyoto Treaty, pass a carbon tax or enact Obama’s cap and trade agenda.

It’s all the more remarkable because Americans have been scolded nearly every day for being a major source of all these satanic gases that are allegedly burning up the planet. Instead, since 2005, our emissions are down by roughly 10 percent and almost twice that amount on a per capita basis. Not bad.
How did that happen? If you think the answer is that we’ve transitioned to green energy, you are completely wrong.

The game-changer for the U.S. has been the shale oil and gas revolution over the past six years brought about through new smart drilling technologies. The U.S. is now the largest natural gas producer in the world. And as America has produced more natural gas, we have shifted away from coal.
This, according to the Energy Information Administration, accounts for more than 60 percent of the carbon emission reductions in the United States. Obama never mentioned that.

Here’s the real stunner: if we want to reduce carbon emissions further, investing in natural gas is a far more efficient strategy than going all in for so-called “green renewable energy” sources.

Over the last seven years, the U.S. government has spent almost $70 billion in tax, regulatory and spending subsidies to the renewable energy sector. But wind and solar energy after this avalanche of government support account for only about three percent of electricity production.

By contrast, the shale gas explosion has been almost entirely devoid of subsidies–yet its output has exploded.

That’s great news for the environment because natural gas emits only about half the carbon as coal, even though coal is much cleaner than it once was.


 

 

If you grow okra, expect a police raid

A retired man was awoken to his property being invaded by a swarm of police officers — accompanied by drug-sniffing dogs and a police helicopter — interested in the plants in his garden. The early-morning raid occurred on October 1st, 2014, at the home of Dwane Perry. The first thing he remembers hearing was the whirring of the copter blades and strange men banging on his door. “I was scared actually, at first, because I didn’t know what was happening,” said Mr. Perry to WSB-TV. Agents from the Governor’s Task Force for drug suppression had apparently been trolling the skies over the area and observed plants on his property that they deemed suspicious. Based on that intel, a team of Broward County deputies trespassed on Mr. Perry’s land to harass and potentially arrest the retiree because of the contents of his garden. After confronting Mr. Perry, deputies sheepishly realized that the tree-growing plant was actually okra — not cannabis. It has five leaves instead of seven, and produces a vegetable that is popular in southern cooking. “Here I am, at home and retired and, you know, I do the right thing,” Mr. Perry explained. “Then they come to my house strapped with weapons for no reason. It ain’t right.”...more

NCBA vows to fight USDA plan to create 2nd beef checkoff program

The largest contractor of the Beef Checkoff Program, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), said today that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s idea to reform the checkoff by creating another beef checkoff fund is dead on arrival with the grassroots organization. According to the 1985 Act, CBB, in coordination with the Beef Promotion Operating Committee, contracts with established national, non-profit, industry organizations to implement checkoff programs. For three years, a checkoff enhancement working group comprised of the industry stakeholders has met to discuss potential reform of the beef checkoff in order for it to meet the needs of today’s diverse cattle industry and make it more effective and efficient. Since that time, the group has not been able to reach a consensus. alling the process a “waste of time and money” and claiming “there is no willingness from key players within the group to allow real reforms to take place,” the National Farmers Union voted to leave the working group. At the same time, NFU passed a resolution calling for a series of changes to the 1985 Act, which would require congressional approval and a change to the 1985 Act. The final recommendation called for USDA to place the beef checkoff under the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996 (1996 Act). Unlike the previous recommendations, the final action item proposed by NFU would simply require an act of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, as the 1996 Act allows the Secretary of Agriculture to write a rule for a new commodity checkoff program. During a September 30 meeting of the working group, including NFU despite its decision to withdraw, Secretary Vilsack announced that he is considering creating an additional beef checkoff that would fall under the 1996 Act. A move McCan says could jeopardize the entire national checkoff. McCan said NCBA sees this as the current administration taking executive action to achieve its agenda regardless of what the majority of the industry wants. “This is an unnecessary act that was announced to appease one group,” McCan says...more

Friday, October 03, 2014

Cowboy Express gallops into Utah to protest federal land managers

SALT LAKE CITY — A group of horseback riders drew stares, honks and a few handshakes and high-fives along Redwood Road Thursday, hooves clattering on pavement in a protest ride of federal land management policies. The Utah trek of the Grass March Cowboy Express hit Salt Lake City and continued east up Parleys Canyon, with Tooele County Commission Chairman Bruce Clegg and Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, riding in tandem. With them they carried a mail pouch sporting a letter demanding the resignation of a BLM field office manager who ordered grazing reductions in Battle Mountain, Nevada, and petitions from rural Utah counties citing a long list of grievances on federal wild horse management, endangered species protections and land use policies. "It is not working," said Ivory, the sponsor of Utah's 2012 Transfer of Public Lands Act, which demands the federal government cede title to certain lands within Utah's borders. "We have a federal government that is so over-extended and over-indebted that it is restricting the access and diminishing the health and productivity of our federal lands, and something has got to change. What we are saying is that we be given the same treatment as states east of Colorado." A copy of Ivory's HB148, complete with Utah Gov. Gary Herbert's signature, is being carried back to Washington, D.C., as well as petitions from Box Elder, Washington and Iron counties. The coast-to-coast ride began Sept. 26 in Bodega Bay, California, and is slated to end 2,800 miles and 20 days later at the doorstep of Congress...more

Grandpa Frank surprises Jenna with a horse

This happened yesterday...I surprised my granddaughter at the school bus.

http://youtu.be/Dv8tuRUBHIU

Why a popular Nevada lands bill got held up in Congress

When Nevadans want to change how they use the land they walk on, they often need permission from Congress. That's a fact of life when the federal government owns about 85 percent of the state's land. Between 2009 and 2010, two Nevada communities pitched Congress to preserve a wilderness area and open another piece of federal land to mining. That mine would bring at least 1,000 jobs to a county with double-digit unemployment. Locals thought it would be an easy win. Instead, they got a lesson in why lands bills are so hard to move through a hyperpartisan Congress. After three and a half years and about eight committee hearings, the bill finally passed the U.S. House of Representatives in September. The Northern Nevada Land Conservation and Economic Development Act would create about 73,500 acres of protected wilderness in exchange for allowing 23,000 acres of federal land for economic development, including a copper mine. The biggest Nevada lands package in 16 years now awaits a Senate vote, and its future is still uncertain. "We didn't anticipate it would take this long or have this much resistance," said George Dini, the mayor of Yerington. Here's a look at how a bill that has the support of everyone in Nevada got caught up in a Congress that made it about something much bigger...more

With Dry Taps and Toilets, California Drought Turns Desperate

After a nine-hour day working at a citrus packing plant, her body covered in a sheen of fruit wax and dust, there is nothing Angelica Gallegos wants more than a hot shower, with steam to help clear her throat and lungs. “I can just picture it, that feeling of finally being clean — really refreshed and clean,” Ms. Gallegos, 37, said one recent evening. But she has not had running water for more than five months — nor is there any tap water in her near future — because of a punishing and relentless drought in California. In the Gallegos household and more than 500 others in Tulare County, residents cannot flush a toilet, fill a drinking glass, wash dishes or clothes, or even rinse their hands without reaching for a bottle or bucket. Unlike the Okies who came here fleeing the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the people now living on this parched land are stuck. “We don’t have the money to move, and who would buy this house without water?” said Ms. Gallegos, who grew up in the area and shares a tidy mobile home with her husband and two daughters. “When you wake up in the middle of the night sick to your stomach, you have to think about where the water bottle is before you can use the toilet.” Now in its third year, the state’s record-breaking drought is being felt in many ways: vanishing lakes and rivers, lost agricultural jobs, fallowed farmland, rising water bills, suburban yards gone brown. But nowhere is the situation as dire as in East Porterville, a small rural community in Tulare County where life’s daily routines have been completely upended by the drying of wells and, in turn, the disappearance of tap water...more

Dam dedicated in SW Colorado to store irrigation water for New Mexico

The traditional ribbon cutting Thursday officially brought on line the Long Hollow Reservoir, raising the hopes of irrigators for a more consistent supply of water. Already the reservoir, capacity 5,300 acre-feet, has seen a little accumulation of water from recent heavy rain funneled into it via Long Hollow Creek and Government Draw. “We released that water,” said Brice Lee, president of the La Plata Water Conservancy District, sponsors of the project. “But today we start storing.” The main purpose of the reservoir, named for the late landowner Bobby K. Taylor, whose ranch house sat scant yards from the toe of the dam, is the storage of water to meet contractual obligations with New Mexico. Colorado must share La Plata River water fifty-fifty with New Mexico. But the fickle nature of the river makes living up to requirements difficult. Now reservoir water can satisfy New Mexico demands, allowing Colorado irrigators more use of the La Plata River. The Long Hollow Reservoir will serve as a water bank, to be drawn on by New Mexico. The reserve allows Colorado irrigators to use La Plata River water that otherwise would go south ..more

Lawsuit: TSA Agents Opened Urn and Spilled Ashes Throughout Suitcase

by 

Shannon Thomas of Cleveland, Ohio is suing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and twenty unnamed TSA agents for opening an urn containing his mother's ashes and spilling them throughout his suitcase.

Cleveland Scene magazine broke the news yesterday:
The incident occurred nearly two years ago when Thomas packed his bag with a "very heavy and sturdy" urn with a tightly screwed on top that held held his mother's ashes, and padded it in his bag "with his clothing to attempt to protect it." He checked it at Cleveland Hopkins, got a connecting flight in Washington D.C., and arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The plan was to "spread his mother's remains in the Caribbean Sea, as she had requested prior to passing away."
In San Juan, he noticed the TSA had inspected his bag along the way and that the ashes were spilled all throughout his suitcase. The TSA "negligently, carelessly, and recklessly replaced the lid of the urn, placed a bag inspection notice in Plaintiff's suitcase and sent the bag on its way. This action caused the urn to open and spilled the remains of Plaintiff's mother on the inside of Plaintiff's suitcase and on Plaintiff's personal effects."
Thomas charges that the agency's action "constitutes intentional and/or negligent infliction of emotional distress" and "outrageous disturbance of human remains."  Also:
In the two years since it happened, Thomas says "No person speaking on behalf of the United States or TSA has ever issued an apology, explanation, or notification to [Thomas] aside from the bag search notice."



Thank you George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1307

At his last recording session on October 29, 1931 Earl Johnson & His Dixie Clodhoppers recorded Way Down In Georgia.  Johnson was the Georgia state fiddle champion in 1926.  Here's a short bio:

Earl Johnson was born in August 24, 1886 in Gwinnett County, Georgia.  He learned violin techniques under the tutelage of his father and a correspondence course and formed his first group with his brother and sister(guitar and banjo).  When both  his brother and sister died in 1923,  he played second fiddle with the then well known Fiddlin John Carson and his band the Virginia Reelers, and reportedly even played with the popular Georgia Yellow Hammers on occasion.  Eventually, he joined up with brilliant guitarists Byrd Moore and banjoist  Emmet Bankston to form his own group,  the Dixie Entertainers.  When Lee "Red" Henderson replaced Byrd Moore as the guitar player, the group became known as the Clodhoppers. They recorded some of the wildest and most exciting versions of standard breakdowns that have ever been released.  Later sessions employed his wife Lula Bell and guitarist Bill Henson. 

http://youtu.be/d9jyZxAb3Ic

Record-breaking monsoon season ends in Southwest


This year’s Southwest monsoon season will be remembered for unusually intense storms that brought months’ worth of rain in just one day. Some areas in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico received more rain in a day than in a typical season, the National Weather Service said. The rains caused flooding, sending water into homes and closing roads throughout the region. In New Mexico, metropolitan Albuquerque saw its 14th wettest monsoon on record. More than 5.6 inches of rain fell at the Albuquerque International Sunport, the National Weather Service said. A river flooded in Carlsbad last week, forcing the evacuation of about 110 homes. In September, a storm caused by remnants of Hurricane Odile led to the death of an oil field worker near Loving. The start of 2014 was extremely dry for the state. By July, however, with the arrival of the monsoon season, New Mexico saw above normal precipitation for the first time, which brought the yearly average statewide precipitation up to 80 percent of normal, according to the National Weather Service. The monsoon fizzled a bit in August, but helped bring the state’s average precipitation up to 82 percent of normal. September brought extremely wet weather to Southern New Mexico, but much less for central and northern portions of the state...more

Several NW grazing cases decided in federal court

Chief U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill has found that federal agencies did not violate the Endangered Species Act and jeopardize threatened bull trout by approving grazing in Idaho’s Little Lost River basin. In a separate decision, Winmill agreed with an environmental group, the Western Watersheds Project, that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management improperly renewed grazing permits overseen by its office in Burley, Idaho. Although he found the BLM violated federal environmental law in the latter case, the judge did not order grazing to cease on the allotments while the agency revises its plans. In Oregon, an environmental group failed to convince another federal judge to stop a fencing project on a grazing allotment in the southern part of the state. In the Little Lost River basin lawsuit, Western Watersheds Project claimed that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service insufficiently analyzed the impact of grazing and water withdrawals for livestock on bull trout. The group also claimed the agency approved inadequate mitigation measures for grazing on the two allotments, which total more than 100,000 acres of BLM and U.S. Forest Service land in Idaho. Winmill dismissed all these arguments, noting that conditions on the allotments have improved dramatically over the past decade. “Certainly there are mitigation measures that have failed,” he said. “But the record shows that the Forest Service and BLM are engaged in a serious and consistent effort to reduce grazing’s impact and recover the bull trout.” The judge was less generous in describing the BLM Burley field office’s management of four allotments that cover more than 75,000 acres in Idaho. In that case, Winmill agreed with the environmental group’s allegations that BLM had violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to study the environmental consequences of their decisions. The ruling found that BLM did not consider alternatives that would have reduced grazing levels or restricted the practice...more

Wind Farms Getting a Pass on Killing Endangered Bats?

Nothing strikes fear into developers and property owners more than a new critter on the federal list of endangered species. Case in point: The northern long-eared bat, found in 39 states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service probably will place it on the list in April. The logging industry is worried. “The economic loss to the entire state of Michigan would be devastating, if timber harvesting were to be restricted to the winter months in their habitat area,” said Brenda Owen, executive director of the Michigan Association of Timbermen. “This is not a viable solution to the bat’s decline, and it’s never a solution that the Timbermen would stand by and let happen.” But the wind industry is not, even though wind turbines kill an estimated 600,000 or more bats a year, a University of Colorado study shows. That includes an unknown number of endangered northern long-eared bats...more

I wonder what would happen if it was the southwestern short-eared bat and the issue was grazing.

‘Stalk And Pounce’ Hunting Method Of Mountain Lions Dissected By UC Santa Cruz Scientists

Scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz say they now know much more about how Mountain Lions conserve energy to stalk, pounce and overpower their prey, thanks to the help of a wildlife tracking collar. The GPS device – known as the SMART Wildlife Collar – includes accelerometers that tell researchers “not just where an animal is but what it is doing and how much its activities “cost” in terms of energy expenditure,” says a release from UC Santa Cruz. “What’s really exciting is that we can now say, here’s the cost of being a mountain lion in the wild and what they need in terms of calories to live in this environment,” said study lead author Terrie Williams, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz. “Understanding the energetics of wild animals moving in complex environments is valuable information for developing better wildlife management plans.” Williams’ research team first studied the cats in captivity, using treadmills to monitor oxygen consumption at different speeds. The process of training the cougars to actually use the treadmill took about three years...more

Three years to train a cat to use a treadmill.  That "SMART Collar" certainly wasn't on these profs.  Somebody needs  to "stalk and pounce" on this project and defund the sucker.

Wyoming wolves still under federal protection

A federal judge has ruled that management of Wyoming’s wolf population will remain under federal control. “I am disappointed in Judge Berman Jackson’s ruling,” Wyoming Governor Matt Mead said in a press release Tuesday. Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson heard arguments on Sept. 30 on whether to reverse her earlier order placing gray wolves back under federal protection. Until Jackson’s original Sept. 23 ruling, in much of Wyoming wolves were classified as an unprotected predator species that could be shot on sight. Jackson’s decision centered around the fact that even though Wyoming promised to maintain 100 breeding pairs in an agreement with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, that number was considered “non-binding.” In her decision, the judge wrote that it was “arbitrary and capricious for the [US Fish and Wildlife] Service to rely on the state’s nonbinding promises to maintain a particular number of wolves when the availability of that specific numerical buffer was such a critical aspect of the delisting decision.” Jackson’s ruling hinged only on legal status of the state’s promise to keep alive 100 breeding wolf pairs, not on whether gray wolf populations had improved or on the fact that wolves could be shot on sight in most of the state...more

Yellow-billed cuckoo to be listed as threatened

A large bird known to nest in wetlands along the Santa Ana and Colorado rivers will be protected under the Endangered Species Act, federal wildlife officials announced Thursday. The western population of yellow-billed cuckoo will be listed as threatened with extinction because its habitats along rivers and other waterways has greatly declined in 10 western states, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The cuckoo is about the size of crow, standing as high as 10 inches. In fact, some have called it a “rain crow” because it is known to cluck shortly before rainfall. It’s carnivorous, dining on insects and the occasional frog or lizard, Anderson said. And it spends its winters in South America. The yellow-billed cuckoo was once abundant in the western United States, but its populations have dropped over decades because of the loss and damage to its wetland habitats, according to the wildlife service. Their nesting grounds have been grazed and converted to crop fields. These birds also have lost habitat through dam construction, river diversions, and the introduction of non-native plants, the service said. The listing will be official Nov. 3. The next steps will be to identify critical habitat areas for protection, and to develop a recovery plan, the service said in a press release....more

Thursday, October 02, 2014

US reroutes flights around Alaska beach in attempt to avoid walrus stampede

The plight of thousands of walruses forced to crowd on to an Alaska beach because of disappearing sea ice has set off an all-out response from the US government to avoid a catastrophic stampede. The Federal Aviation Authority has re-routed flights, and local communities have called on bush pilots to keep their distance in an effort to avoid setting off a panic that could see scores of walruses trampled to death, federal government scientists told reporters. Curiosity seekers and the media have also been asked to stay away. An estimated 35,000 walruses were spotted on the barrier island in north-western Alaska on 27 September by scientists on an aerial survey flight...more

Wolf hanging around homes and dogs to be captured and relocated

A female wolf that’s become too comfortable hanging around homes and domestic dogs near Ione will be captured and put in a Western Washington wildlife park, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials said Wednesday. The capture, which is planned for this week, would be the first time wildlife officials put one of the state-listed endangered species into captivity as the wolves are reintroducing themselves into the state. The wolf had been captured and fitted with a radio collar in July 2013 and eventually found another female companion to form the Ruby Creek Pack. When biologists suspected the other wolf had been bred by a domestic dog that had joined them last winter, they captured the wolf, spayed it and turned it loose. That wolf was later killed in a vehicle collision, leaving the Ruby Creek wolf on her own again. She has generally stayed out of trouble, but has been seen playing with pet dogs, said Nate Pamplin, state wildlife program director. Biologists fear she will mate with a dog during the winter breeding season, he said...more