Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Wolf advocates intervene in NM lawsuit against Feds

Advocates for the endangered Mexican gray wolf filed a motion this week on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, intervening in a lawsuit brought by New Mexico against the federal agency. New Mexico’s Department of Game and Fish sued the Service for releasing two wolf pups in Catron County in April, part of the Service’s ongoing effort to reintroduce Mexican wolves into the wild in New Mexico and Arizona. Game and Fish has been adamantly opposed to the reintroduction program in recent years, citing concerns about how the program has been managed. In filing its suit, the state wants to block any more wolf reintroductions until the Service develops a species management plan — due in 2017 after years of failed attempts to produce one — and remove the two pups from the wild. “Should the State of New Mexico prevail in this litigation, the Conservation Groups’ interests in ensuring the survival and recovery of the Mexican gray wolf will be harmed,” according to the motion. The groups that filed the motion include the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance...more

Forest Service getting a new, $110,000 sign

The U.S. Forest Service is spending $110,000 to replace the sign at the entrance to the David J. Wheeler Federal Building in Baker City. The building, which includes the Post Office and the headquarters of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, is at 1550 Dewey Ave. Forest Service officials requested the sign after employees from the Whitman Ranger District moved from offices on 11th Street to the Wheeler Building in December 2013, said Sally Mayberry, a public affairs officer for the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency that owns and maintains the Wheeler Building. “The USFS had a temporary wood sign previously but asked GSA to place new signs to better help visitors find the new Forest Service location,” Mayberry stated in an email. Although the Whitman District staff moved in in 2013, the building has housed the Wallowa-Whitman headquarters for more than 30 years...more


All we hear about is how firefighting costs are eating up more than 50 percent of the Forest Service budget and doing damage to other programs (see here and here).  Yet they can spend $110,000 on a sign??

Keep ranchers on the land, and the land stays open

By Andy Rieber

...And for those of us who would rather see ranches instead of condo developments that swallow up open spaces, a recent study (“The Disappearing West”) funded by the left-leaning Washington, D.C., nonprofit Center for American Progress, found that between 2001 and 2011, a staggering 4,300 square miles of natural areas in the West were lost to development. The study found that “development on private lands accounted for nearly three-fourths of all natural areas in the West that disappeared.”  If the study has a moral, it’s this:  To preserve the natural splendors of the West, we must find ways to keep undeveloped private land from residential, commercial and industrial development.

How?  One way is to support public-lands ranching.  The 250 million acres of federal grazing lands are integrally tied to the economic livelihood of individual ranches, which apart from their federal grazing allotments comprise 100 million acres of mostly natural, undeveloped private lands.  If these ranches are able to stay in business, that’s 100 million acres of open space, habitat and ecosystems spared from the developer’s bulldozers.  Put a price tag on that, if you can.

Today, many environmental groups understand the critical role that ranchers play in the conservation of the West.  The World Wildlife Fund’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative, Audubon’s Working Lands effort and The Nature Conservancy’s numerous partnerships with ranchers all show that the custodianship of ranchers is highly valued. Teamwork and collaboration have come to define 21st century conservation on Western rangelands...

Land donation would provide access to Sabinoso Wilderness east of Las Vegas, NM

By Mark Oswald

The Bureau of Land Management is proposing to accept donation of the Rimrock Rose Ranch in northeastern New Mexico from The Wilderness Land Trust, to provide public access to the Sabinoso Wilderness.

The BLM also will purchase some of the ranch property. As part of its deal with the Wilderness Land Trust, the BLM will eliminate two grazing allotments in the area.

In a news release, the BLM said the donation would provide — for the first time — public access to the Sabinoso Wilderness, a roughly 16,000-acre area currently landlocked by private land about 40 miles east of Las Vegas, N.M.

...The ranch property, recently acquired by The Wilderness Land Trust, consists of about 4,176 acres adjacent to the designated wilderness. Of the total acreage, about 3,576 acres are proposed to be acquired through the donation, while the remaining acreage is proposed to be acquired by the BLM. The agency’s news release did not say what the purchase price would be or whether a price has been arrived at.

As part of this action, the BLM also is proposing to make two BLM livestock grazing allotments for which the ranch served as base property unavailable for grazing going forward, in order to protect riparian areas.

This part of the proposal, involving two allotments totaling 6,260 acres, is a condition placed on the donation by The Wilderness Land Trust.

“Therefore, in order to consider removing the availability of grazing from the allotments, an amendment to the Taos Resource Management Plan must be prepared,” says the BLM’s news release. “The remaining 16 (grazing) allotments in and around Sabinoso Wilderness would not be affected by this proposal."




This is from February 9, 2016: 

The Wilderness Land Trust and the Wyss Foundation today announced a major milestone in the effort to unlock public access to the 16,000 acre Sabinoso Wilderness in New Mexico, an area that is currently impossible for the public to access without trespassing on private property. 

 Thanks to a $3,150,000 contribution from the Wyss Foundation, The Wilderness Land Trust has purchased the Rimrock Rose, a 4,176 acre property adjacent to the Sabinoso Wilderness that includes the remote and beautiful Canyon Largo. The Wilderness Land Trust will now work to transfer the Rimrock Rose to public ownership by donating it to the Bureau of Land Management so that it may be added to the Sabinoso Wilderness area to create public access. 

 ...“We are proud to be able to help local leaders and The Wilderness Land Trust as they expand access for fishing, hunting, hiking, and recreation in New Mexico’s prized backcountry,” said Molly McUsic, President of the Wyss Foundation.  “Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the wonder of the Sabinoso Wilderness and all of our nation's public lands.”

...Over the coming months, The Wilderness Land Trust will work with the Bureau of Land Management to donate the lands to public ownership so that the public may explore one of New Mexico’s newest and most stunning wilderness areas.  Before the lands may be donated to public ownership, the Bureau of Land Management will need to conduct and complete a review of the areas to determine whether they are suitable for addition to the Sabinoso Wilderness and meet the agency’s criteria for accepting a donation.

And just in case you are interested: 

Founded in 1998, the Wyss Foundation has long supported locally-led efforts to conserve public lands in the American West for everyone to experience and explore.  The Foundation’s philanthropy has helped conserve and restore public lands from the Crown of the Continent in Montana and the Hoback Basin in Wyoming to the coastline of California and the rivers of Maine.
The Wilderness Land Trust is a small, highly specialized nonprofit organization established to buy and protect wilderness land.  Since founded in 1992, the Trust has preserved 432 parcels comprising more than 47,000 acres of wilderness inholdings in 93 designated and proposed wilderness areas across 9 states.  The Wilderness Land Trust, a 501(c)(3) organization, has offices in California and Colorado.  For more information visit our website www.wildernesslandtrust.org.

Concerning the partnership agreement above, Senators Udall & Heinrich  and Rep. Lujan issued a statement:

 Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján welcomed a partnership between the Wyss Foundation and the Wilderness Land Trust to open up the Sabinoso Wilderness for public access.

Senator Udall said, "I'd like to thank the Wyss Foundation and the Wilderness Land Trust"; Senator Heinrich called the two organizations "dedicated partners" and said this was a "great achievement; and Rep. Lujan thanked them for their "efforts".

Concerning the outlawing of ranching on two allotments, do they "welcome" this requirement of the Wilderness Land Trust?   Will Senator Udall and Rep. Lujan still "thank" them?  Does Senator Heinrich still believe this is a "great achievement" by his "dedicated partners"?

Gold King Mine Report Botched By The Mine’s Federal Part-Owner

by Ethan Barton

A botched “independent” review of the Gold King Mine spill was led by the Department of the Interior (DOI) – a federal agency that owned part of the mine, among other conflicts of interest, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – the very agency DOI was investigating for causing the spill – once considered holding Interior liable for pollution, likely for decades of acid waste leaking from Gold King’s lower level. EPA and DOI also frequently collaborated on projects at Gold King Mine and across the region.

...The EPA selected DOI’s Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to lead the review despite the latter’s long involvement at the site and elsewhere across the mine-rich region. Also, DOI’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was active in the area and often worked closely with the EPA, and even owns a portion of the Gold King Mine’s lower level.

“The Gold King Mine blowout is no mystery to Interior,” House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop told TheDCNF. “They have pretended to play an insignificant role, but nearly all of DOI’s bureaus, and especially the Bureau of Land Management, actively worked on this and related mines in the region.”

...In a further twist, internal emails obtained by TheDCNF show EPA considered holding BLM at least partially liable for pollution in the region under the Superfund law last year, though the bureau ultimately was let off the hook.


Greens Fight Feds for Idaho's Wolves

More than 600 wolves have been strangled, shot from the air and trapped illegally in Idaho, five environmental groups say in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Western Watersheds Project and others say USDA Wildlife Services has been killing the wolves without legally required determination that the slaughter is justified to protect livestock and increase elk populations. "The agency killed at least 72 wolves in Idaho last year, using methods including foothold traps, wire snares that strangle wolves, and aerial gunning from helicopters," the groups say in the June 1 federal lawsuit. "The agency has used aerial gunning in central Idaho's 'Lolo Zone' for several years in a row — using planes or helicopters to run wolves to exhaustion before shooting them from the air, often leaving them wounded to die slow, painful deaths." Elk hunting in Idaho is managed in 28 elk zones. The Lolo Zone, in north central Idaho, begins at the Idaho-Montana Border and includes part of the Selway-Bitteroot Wilderness, north across the North Fork Clearwater drainage. Twenty-one gray wolves in the Lolo Zone were shot from the air on Feb. 10 this year, bringing the toll 657 wolves killed by Wildlife Services in Idaho since 2006, the groups say. They expect other zones to be added to the slaughter. The program to hunt, trap and kill wolves is the product of a March 2011 Environmental Assessment (EA) and Decision/Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). The 2011 EA "claims to evaluate the environmental impact of killing wolves that may have predated upon domestic livestock, as well as expanded wolf-killing meant to boost elk herds," according to the complaint...more

12 defendants seek separate trials in Nevada standoff

LAS VEGAS — Twelve of 19 defendants want separate trials in the federal criminal case in Las Vegas involving southern Nevada cattleman Cliven Bundy stemming from an armed standoff near his Bunkerville ranch. The 70-year-old state sovereignty figure and three of his adult sons are among those whose attorneys have filed documents in recent weeks seeking to sever their cases from the rest. All 19 have pleaded not guilty to various conspiracy, obstruction, weapon, threat and assault charges stemming from a gunpoint standoff that stopped government agents from rounding up cattle on public land. They’re charged together in a single 63-page indictment. Bundy attorney Joel Hansen argues in a May 27 filing that a group trial could confuse a jury into finding defendants “guilty by association.” Cliven Bundy didn’t carry a gun, didn’t threaten government agents, wasn’t at the scene of the standoff and “was not in control or in charge of anything,” Hansen said. “It is extraordinarily difficult for a jury to follow admonishing instructions and to keep separate evidence that is rele­vant only to co-defendants.” Attorney Chris Rasmussen, representing Peter Santilli, said in a document filed May 25 that Santilli had a First Amendment right to cover the events at the Bundy ranch for an internet talk show he hosts. The lawyer calls Santilli “a new breed of journalist that offers an alternative news channel” to the public...more

Lyman Appeals Trespassing Conviction

San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman has appealed his federal trespass conviction to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. In court documents, Lyman calls his prosecution, ”a modern day witch hunt.” Eighteen Utah counties, including Kane, have filed briefs supporting Lyman. Lyman claims he struck an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management about how far his protest ATV ride could penetrate Recapture Canyon, which has been closed to mechanized traffic for nearly a decade. Lyman said he terminated his ride at that exact spot. A recording of a telephone conversation Lyman had with BLM state director Juan Palma was submitted as part of the appeal. In the recorded conversation Palma allegedly assured Lyman no one would be arrested for the protest ATV ride through Recapture Canyon. Lyman served 10 days in jail earlier this year. He is acting as his own lawyer in the appeals process. link

Black-footed ferrets to return to former Wyoming stronghold

Wildlife officials hope this summer to restore a population of black-footed ferrets to a pair of western Wyoming ranches where the species, for a time believed extinct, was rediscovered in the wild 35 years ago. The 35 ferrets released will be among as many as 220 captive-bred ferrets released in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Kansas this year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service breeds the ferrets at a facility outside Fort Collins in northern Colorado. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department plans to release its allocation of young ferrets July 26 on the adjoining Pitchfork and Lazy BV ranches in western Wyoming. They live in vast colonies of prairie dogs, upon which they prey and depend on for food. Typically cattle ranchers out West do their best to poison off prairie dogs to prevent pasture damage. That hasn’t been the case lately on the Pitchfork and Lazy BV. There, Wyoming Game and Fish has been experimenting with feeding prairie dogs a plague vaccine and dusting the rodents’ burrows with insecticide. Plague, a disease carried by fleas, is among the top killers of prairie dogs...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1628

Today we have Spade Cooley & Tex Williams with their 1945 recording of Troubled Over You.  The tune is on their 2CD compilation Swingin' The Devil's Dream

https://youtu.be/BUsf1a3DlHE

Monday, June 06, 2016

EPA Pollutes River, Uses Scare Tactics To Take Control Of A Colorado Town

by Ethan Barton

A decades-long battle between federal environmental officials and a small Colorado town is about to end in the government’s favor, thanks to the agency-caused Gold King Mine spill disaster, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) representatives have focused intently on Silverton, Colorado since the mid-1990s, accumulating evidence — and sometimes using scare tactics — to persuade residents to drop their opposition to a Superfund designation for the surrounding region.

Residents surrendered to federal demands only after an EPA work-crew turned the nearby Animas River bright yellow for nearly a week by releasing a three-million-gallon flood of acidic mine waste under extremely questionable circumstances in August 2015.

Suspended in the flood was 880,000 pounds of toxic metals, including lead and arsenic, that poured into the river that supplies drinking water for people living in three states and the Navajo Nation. The mine is just upstream from Silverton.

...The disaster was the last straw that convinced locals to reverse their decades-long opposition and allow the EPA to go forward in designating the region for Superfund listing – a designation the agency reserves only for the nation’s most polluted sites.

Once the designation becomes official, EPA will assume vast new powers throughout the region. But EPA has been encroaching on residents’ lives going back to at least 1994, with more than a few memorable episodes along the way.


...How EPA has used Superfund authority against Silverton exemplifies the inability of local residents to resist the federal agency when it is determined to have its way.

The first goal of the Animas River Stakeholders Group that was formed in 1994 to protect the environment from abandoned mines was to “keep CERCLA out.” The EPA not only blocked accomplishment of that goal, it also thwarted local efforts to cleanup the region’s environment.

“It definitely has taken the wind out of our sails,” group official Peter Butler told The Denver Post in May. “It’s uncertain what the Animas River Stakeholder Group’s future will be.”


Swickard column: My time to talk writing

“Storytelling was the first human occupation beyond finding food, shelter and a mate.” Michael Swickard

by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.

 I’ve written weekly newspaper columns much of my adult life. A couple of months ago I published my first novel, Hideaway Hills. This Saturday, June 11th I will be signing my novel at the Coas Bookstore in the Downtown Mall in Las Cruces from ten to noon.
            I am a writer because I love storytelling. Luckily for me over the years I’ve been around many good storytellers. Some were just normal folks with an entertaining way around a story while others are professional storytellers.
            Americans are big on stories as is evident by Hollywood. The best part of being a writer is that whatever is happening to you, it might end up in a story. Example: lightning hit a couple of houses away and went through the cable lines burning out my computer and television.
            I took the dead cable boxes to the local Comcast office. The representative told me they were not going to replace my computer and television. I never even considered it. They said it was an “Act of God.” I said, “So I can quote you.” They nodded. Then I added, “Major corporation Comcast affirms there is a God.”
            Until now it hadn’t made it into a column. As a writer I have lots of scraps of paper with those kinds of oddball thoughts waiting for the right moment. The novel came about because over the last decade I daily took care of my uncle to keep him out of a nursing home. One year ago at age 89 he passed away.
            So from 24/7 care of a relative, especially every night, I suddenly had lots of time. Therefore, I started Hideaway Hills from story ideas I had while living in Lincoln County in the early 1980s. Every day I would write. Then came the happy day a couple of months ago when I typed THE END and set about to publish it which in today’s world is relatively easy.
            Hideaway Hills is the first book in a trilogy about New Mexico. It is set in 1985 in the Sierra Blanca area. People have told me stories all of my adult life. I have used some of them in columns and kept the rest in a box. This book let me use some of those stories.
            For instance: one day in a Lincoln County coffee shop one of the old men who told great stories was asked about the nearby Native Americans. He said, “They’re fine folks though when I was just a button on the Bonita me and three friends were attacked while we were camping. They were shooting at us and we were shooting at them. Then we realized we were running out of bullets.”
            The old man paused and sipped his coffee. One of the youngsters at the table impatiently asked, “What happened?” This old man smiled and said, “Son, the Indians killed us all.” He got up and left to our applause.
            Writing is interesting since once it is published it may last for generations or not. I like that I have captured a time in a small community. None of the characters are real but after a year of writing they seem real to me. I laugh with them and cry with them and in the silence of my head I listen to what they have to say.
            I have been asked how to become a novelist. The answer is easy and the work is difficult. You sit and write every day. Many people have told me of their desire to be a writer. They say they have a story but often they have a vision but sadly do not write it down.
            Augusten Burroughs wrote, “The secret of being a writer is that you have to write. It’s not enough to think about writing or to study literature or plan a future life as an author. You really have to lock yourself away, alone, and get to work.” Amen.
            If you are in Las Cruces Saturday, I’ll be at Coas Bookstore in the Las Cruces Downtown Mall ten to noon. Hope to see you there.
  


Africanized bees kill two dogs in West Texas, injure owner with more than 50 stings

A swarm of Africanized bees killed two dogs in Midland and injured the dogs’ owner, stinging the man more than 50 times in a frenzied attack. James Roy of Midland went outside to check on his dogs on Thursday and thought the two dogs were fighting, but they were in fact being attacked by a swarm of bees. The two dogs, Susie and Sammy, were stung more than 1,000 times, according to News West 9, and the dogs later died at a veterinarian’s office in Midland. The swarm then attacked Roy, chasing after him as he ran for help. The bees ultimately stung him more than 50 times, the West Texas TV Station reports. A neighbor and some contractors were nearby and helped him by using a water hose to douse the bees on his body. Africanized honey bees, or killer bees, descend from southern African bees imported to the Americas in 1956 by Brazilian scientists trying to breed a honey bee that can adapt better to the South American climate, according to DesertUSA. The website reports these types of bees are super sensitive to noise and vibrations, with some even responding viciously to random triggers, such as stimuli from vehicles, equipment and pedestrians...more

The Many Unreported Dangers of America’s Slaughterhouses

Slaughterhouses, which rank among the most dangerous places to work in the United States, have grown safer in recent years. But there’s still progress to be made: A new report by the Government Accountability Office reveals that many injuries and illnesses sustained by meat and poultry workers go unreported.  Rates of injury and illness among slaughterhouses and processing plants dropped between 2004 and 2013. But much of the data we rely on to track the hazards of the job may be inadequate, the report notes, citing a lack of paid sick leave at some slaughterhouses and processing plants, and efforts to keep workers’ compensation or insurance premiums low. The Department of Labor also only collects injury or illness data when the incident involves days missed from work. Poultry and meat industry workers also often underreport any illness and injuries, for fears of losing their jobs, the report found. “Our findings raise questions about whether the federal government is doing all it can to ensure it collects the data it needs to support worker protection and workplace safety,” the authors of the report write...more

Colorado emerging as a national leader in developing a recreational-based economy

The common refrain among businesses along Colorado's recreation-rich Interstate 70 mountain corridor over the past few years is "record breaking." Soaring numbers of visitors are swelling private and public coffers in both summer and winter. Tourist-generated tax revenues are reaching peaks. The recreation season now stretches for almost 12 months with more opportunities for year-round play than ever before. While outdoor recreation has long been an economic keystone in Colorado, it is only now getting recognized as a major economic driver nationwide, with proposed federal legislation aiming to bolster the industry that has long languished at the fiscal kids' table. This is a period of amelioration for recreation — a time when gear companies, rafting outfitters, ski areas and advocacy groups join the grown-up table, alongside industrial stalwarts such as energy development, manufacturing and technology, in conversations about the nation's economic development and public land policy. "We are really getting to the point where I think the outdoor industry can save the world," said Luis Benitez, the silver-tongued Everest climber who heads the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office. "We are so limited on things we all can look at and say this is good for our heritage, our education, our environment, our health and wellness and our economy. The outdoor industry is one of the few things everyone can recognize as vitally important."  State leaders, Benitez said, are realizing it's no longer about luring those 500-employee juggernaut companies. State leaders are pursuing outdoor companies with five to 20 employees — such as Pagosa Springs' Voormi, Rifle's The Whole Works, Steamboat Springs' Big Agnes and Icelantic Skis in Denver — that can anchor a diversifying rural economy. "And these are the guys who are starting to influence policy," Benitez said. "This is literally the coming of age for this industry. It's been considered an adolescent for many years and now it's showing up with a bank account and a checkbook, and is a serious player in the conversation." Jessica Wahl, government affairs manager for the Oudoor Industry Association in Boulder, there have been major breakthroughs in Congress this year "with bills that are solely related to recreation. We used to see recreation just tacked onto something. Now it's standing on its own." A pivotal piece of proposed legislation comes from U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. His Recreation, Not Red Tape bill hopes to streamline convoluted public agency processes to expedite permitting while also creating National Recreation Area designation for highly treasured public playgrounds. The bill includes a clause that would allow individual forests, such as the White River National Forest, to keep ski-area fees generated in their boundaries — a huge deal for Colorado...more

Nearly 1,000 Miles Added To National Trails Systems

Nearly 1,000 miles have been added to the national trails systems, with more than 600 miles added to the National Water Trails System and more than 350 miles added to the National Trails System. “By designating these new National Trails, we recognize the efforts of local communities to provide outdoor recreational opportunities that can be enjoyed by everyone,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Friday in making the additions. “Our world-class network of national trails provides easily accessible places to enjoy exercise and connect with nature in both urban and rural areas while also boosting tourism and supporting economic opportunities in local communities across the country.” National Recreation Trail designation recognizes existing trails and trail systems that link communities to recreational opportunities on public lands and in local parks across the Nation. Each of the newly designated trails will receive a certificate of designation, a set of trail markers and a letter of congratulations from Secretary Jewell. While national scenic trails and national historic trails may only be designated by an act of Congress, national recreation trails (including national water trails) may be designated by the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture in response to an application from the trail's managing agency or organization...more



Do you reckon we'll ever see a headline like "1,000 Cows Added To Lincoln National Forest"?

A major Native American site is being looted. Will Obama risk armed conflict to save it?

RIM OF CEDAR MESA, Utah — For centuries, humans have used the red sandstone canyons here as a way to mark their existence. First came archaic hunter-gatherers who worked in Glen Canyon Linear, a crude geometrical style dating back more than 3,500 years. Then about 2,000 years later, early ancestral Pueblo farmers of the Basketmaker period used more subtle lines to produce a man in headdress. A little more than 700 years ago came their descendants, who used the same kind of hard river stone to make drawings of bighorn sheep and a flute player in the ancient rock. Now, President Obama is weighing whether and how he can leave his own permanent imprint on history by designating about 2 million acres of land, known as the Bears Ears, as a national monument. And despite the uniformly acknowledged historical significance of the area, some people regard the conservation efforts by the White House as classic federal overreach. In the current-era conflict between Washington and rural Westerners, the idea of a Bears Ears national monument has produced warnings of a possible armed insurrection. In a state where the federal government owns 65 percent of the land, many conservatives already resent existing restrictions because they bar development that could generate additional revenue. Out-of-state militias came to San Juan County two years ago, when Commissioner Phil Lyman helped lead a protest all-terrain vehicle ride through a canyon the Bureau of Land Management had closed to motorized traffic in 2007. Lyman is appealing the 10-day jail sentence he received in connection with the protest, and argues that his case shows how BLM officials place the priorities of environmentalists over those of local residents. “I would hope that my fellow Utahans would not use violence, but there are some deeply held positions that cannot just be ignored,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch the veteran Republican lawmaker, said in an interview...more

 Let's say it again.  The Antiquities Act says these designations are limited in size:

 That the President of the United States is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected
 
They don't need 1.9 million acres to protect those areas subject to looting or otherwise deserving protection.  Anything more than the "smallest area" is not being done for the Native Americans.  It's being done for the environmentalists and their lobbyists.

Owyhee Canyonlands monument unnecessary and ignores local voices

by Linda Bentz

My family has lived and worked in Southeast Oregon since the 1800s. We are people of the land and for the land. Our businesses have worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Department of State Lands to care for this land since the agencies were created.

With our intimate knowledge of the lands, we assist in reporting, locating and fighting rangeland fires and helping with search and rescues missions. Our goal for our own land and the public’s land is to maintain a healthy viable sagebrush ecosystem in the high desert of southeast Oregon.
Now, all of this may come to an end.

 An outdoor clothing corporation and special interest groups have proclaimed 2.5 million acres in Southeast Oregon as “unprotected” in their campaign to pressure President Obama to turn the land into a monument.

To call this public land “unprotected” is like saying the land in downtown Portland has no zoning code.

The Owyhee Canyonlands along the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border and the water and wildlife that run through it enjoy protections from more than seven layers of local, state and federal government and is actively managed by professional resource managers employed by the three state or federal agencies.

The protections include at least five federal acts (Taylor Grazing Act of 1934, National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, Endangered Species Act of 1973, Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 and Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979) and three land-use plans (Federal Land Policy and Management Act, Southeastern Oregon Resource Management Plan of 2002 and Oregon Greater Sage-Grouse Approved Resource Management Plan of 2015).

When likely Oregon voters were told in a recent poll about the existing protections and plans in place for these lands, 61 percent said the Owyhee Canyonlands has enough protection.

This monument declaration doesn’t offer further protection. It’s more an act of exclusion.

Once a monument is declared, public lands become less accessible not more. It would restrict road maintenance and that would inhibit search and rescue and firefighting operations. It would also restrict ranchers’ ability to care for the land under their grazing permits, limiting our ability to maintain water sources and reservoirs that benefit all wildlife.

‘For the Record’: Will Congress Listen to Ranchers’ Cries for Help?

While America’s southern border has been a hot-button issue in Washington, D.C., for years, the people who live along that border say they’re not sure whether most politicians actually care about it — or them. After a reported kidnapping on a New Mexico ranch in December, many in the region felt it was time for action. They held a town hall meeting titled “Calling Washington Home to the Border” and invited every member of Congress from the area. Only one — Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) — actually showed up. Now Pearce is working with the residents of southern New Mexico and Arizona to make sure their message is heard. For the Record investigates “Forsaken Land” Wednesday, June 8, at 9 p.m. ET only on TheBlaze TV.

There is an interesting trailer for the program here

Border agents train in NM for mounted patrol

...The six-week horse patrol training course is considered among the most challenging the Border Patrol has to offer, and along New Mexico’s rural border, its graduates are among the most in demand. The grueling training puts agents on horseback – many for the first time – eight hours a day, five days a week, for four weeks in an arena and two weeks in the field among the sharp-toothed mountain ranges of the Bootheel region...But in the rugged, rural region that characterizes New Mexico’s Bootheel, many agents – and the ranchers who live out there – say old-fashioned horse patrol is just as indispensable. “We spend most of our time in the mountains,” said Agent Gerald Hancock, who runs the horse patrol program at the Lordsburg station. “We go where no one wants to go.” Border Patrol shifted about a dozen horses to the Lordsburg station in recent weeks to bring the stable to 30 quarter horses and mustangs. The shift came after an outcry earlier this year by local ranchers over border security. One of their demands was to see more agents on horseback – considered a more effective and environmentally friendly manner of patrolling an area with sensitive ecosystems and few passable roads. “We’re working on expanding the barn,” said Agent José Gardea, the Lordsburg station’s patrol agent in charge. An “ideal” number of horses would be 40, he said. The terrain is so rough that the horses can’t be ridden day in and day out, nights, too; they must rest. Meanwhile, Lordsburg has 30 certified riders, both men and women, and a waiting list of agents who want to train to ride, he said...more

Wild Wild West Pro Rodeo finishes in Grant County

SILVER CITY — The Wild, Wild West Pro Rodeo wrapped up its action Saturday after four days of excitement at the Southwest Horseman's Park. The following is the final results: All-around cowboy: Justin Simon, $2,087, steer wrestling and team roping. Bareback riding: 1. Chad Rutherford, 83 points on Pete Carr's Classic Pro Rodeo's Rocky, $1,266; 2. Delvecchio Kaye, 82, $959; 3. Tray Chambliss III, 80.5, $690; 4. Richmond Champion, 80, $460; 5. Kyle Charley, 79, $268; 6. Ed Miles Harvey, 77.5, $192. Steer wrestling: First round: 1. Russell Armenta, 5.1 seconds, $741; 2. Brandon Bates, 5.2, $556; 3. Clayton Tuchscherer, 6.7, $371; 4. Justin Simon, 7.0, $185. Second round: 1. Damian Padilla, 4.7 seconds, $741; 2. (tie) Brent Belkham and Justin Simon, 5.4, $463 each; 4. Tyke Kipp, 6.2, $185. Average: 1. Russell Armenta, 12.1 seconds on two head, $1,112; 2. Justin Simon, 12.4, $834; 3. Tyke Kipp, 13.9, $556; 4. Brent Belkham, 15.6, $278. Team roping: First round: 1. Seth Hall/Byron Wilkerson, 4.7 seconds, $806 each; 2. Dwight Sells/Myles John, 5.2, $604; 3. Chase Massengill/Daylan Frost, 5.3, $403; 4. (tie) Robert Ansley/Brian Sullivan and Erich Rogers/Cory Petska, 5.5, $101 each. Second round:1. JoJo LeMond/Kory Koontz, 4.6 seconds, $806 each; 2. Paul David Tierney/Cesar de la Cruz, 4.8, $604; 3. Aaron Tsinigine/Kinney Harrell, 5.0, $403; 4. Kyle Roberts/TJ Brown, 5.2, $201. Average: 1. Dwight Sells/Myles John, 10.5 seconds on two head, $1,209 each; 2. Kyle Roberts/TJ Brown, 12.1, $906; 3. Monty James/Justin Simon, 12.2, $604; 4. Michael Calmelat/Michael Anaya, 13.2, $302. Saddle bronc riding: 1. Jacobs Crawley, 84 points on Pete Carr's Classic Pro Rodeo's Hang Em High, $1,266; 2. Taos Muncy, 82, $959; 3. (tie) Kobyn Williams and Cody Anthony, 77, $575 each; 5. Magin Montoya, 76, $268; 6. Peter White II, 73, $192. Tie-down roping: First round: 1. Cutter Parsons, 9.9 seconds, $983; 2. Jesse Clark, 10.0, $737; 3. (tie) Taylor Smith and J.D. Kibbe, 10.2, $369 each. Second round: 1. Devon Burris, 9.8 seconds, $983; 2. (tie) Garrett Jacobs and Tyson Runyan, 10.8, $614 each; 4. Cutter Parsons, 11.0, $246. Average: 1. Cutter Parsons, 20.9 seconds on two head, $1,474; 2. Taylor Smith, 22.6, $1,106; 3. Garrett Hale, 26.2, $737; 4. Carter Davis, 28.5, $369. Barrel racing: 1. Lori Todd, 17.35 seconds, $1,380; 2. Kellie Collier, 17.64, $1,183; 3. Susan Siggins, 17.81, $986; 4. Michele McLeod, 17.84, $854; 5. Katelyn McLeod, 17.88, $657; 6. Tassie Munroe, 17.89, $526; 7. Sherry Cervi, 17.90, $394; 8. Nalynn Cline, 17.96, $263; 9. Katelyn Scott, 17.99, $197; 10. Katti Waters, 18.00, $131. Steer roping: First round: 1. Dan Fisher, 11.3 seconds, $1,128; 2. Chance Kelton, 11.4, $846; 3. Guy Allen, 11.6, $564; 4. (tie) Martin Poindexter and Brent Lewis, 11.9, $141 each. Second round: 1. Chet Herren, 12.9 seconds, $1,128; 2. JoJo LeMond, 13.7, $846; 3. Rocky Patterson, 13.9, $564; 4. Brent Lewis, 14.6, $282. Third round: 1. Corey Ross, 12.0 seconds, $1,128; 2. Shay Johnson, 12.7, $846; 3. Shay Good, 13.0, $564; 4. Martin Poindexter, 13.4, $282. Average: 1. Mark Milner, 41.8 seconds on three head, $1,692; 2. Martin Poindexter, 46.3, $1,269; 3. J. Tom Fisher, 46.8, $846; 4. Dan Fisher, 50.9, $423. Bull riding: 1. Scottie Knapp, 90 points on Salt River Rodeo's Fireball, $3,243; 2. Bryce Barrios, 88, $2,486; 3. Riker Carter, 87.5, $1,838; 4. Cody Teel, 86.5, $1,189; 5. Tyler Smith, 85.5, $757; 6. Trey Benton III, 85, $541; 7. (tie) Cole Melancon and Ednei Caminhas, 84.5, $378 each.  Silver City Sun-News

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1627

Its Swingin' Monday and what better to sing about than a StingereeMerle Haggard is here to tell us all about it.  The tune is on his 1976 album It's All In The Movies

https://youtu.be/ceX9mLKD7Jg

Sunday, June 05, 2016

Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Cow sense lessons

by Julie Carter

In ranch country where the cow-calf operations are winding up this year’s branding of the new calf crop, there is an age-old skill that goes totally unheralded in the world except the cowboy crowd.

“Mammying up” baby calves is the necessary chore of helping them find their mother, or vice-versa, after being separated for any given reason such as branding. The job takes time and patience on the cowboy’s part, as well as a sharp sense of reading a cow and calf’s actions, intentions and natural communication.

While this event takes place, the entire herd is held in place by the crew assembled for the day’s work. This can involve men, women and children of various sizes, ages and ability and usually some combination of all those.

Holding herd for a cattle-sort of any kind is often considered menial labor. I suppose if you take into account you sit for hours using not much brain power, enduring the dust, wind, heat, and laborious long hours, it can be classified as such.

What the untrained eye misses is the keen sense of “cow sense” that is exhibited by the cowman that quietly rides through the herd looking for each pair, mom and baby, as they acknowledge each other in a secret, natural language.

I happened to be a kid lucky enough to watch and learn from some of the best at that particular job. Quiet men who taught by doing, not by saying. I never really knew I was learning anything until the time came that I needed to be in the right place at the right time. Instinct kicked in and it happened just like I knew what I was doing.

Not every momma cow cares about searching for her young and not every calf is in the mood to find his momma, especially when it has just been branded, vaccinated and maybe even castrated. It would really rather just lay in the shade and rest up. So the “mammying” takes time that means nothing to the cattle.

The hours tend to drag when you are holding herd. You’ll see the pocket knives come out as herd holders begin to carve on the calluses on their hands or clean their finger nails like there will be a hygiene inspection later.

The tobacco can lids flash in the sun as chews are freshened and spitting tobacco in every direction including between your horse’s ears becomes an Olympic event.

Every now and then a cowboy, not one to remain anti-social for long, will ease over to another puncher and strike up a conversation. All the while, he’ll be keeping one eyeball on the herd so as not to be slack in his duty.

As a kid, holding herd was a job expected of me, not verbalized. I just knew. Endless hours of sitting, twisting around in my saddle, braiding my horse’s mane, looking around, daydreaming and just generally being a kid.

Today, I know the experience to be fertile ground for learning so many things. Quiet patience came a little slower, but the ability to read what a cow is thinking before she does it soaked in like the summer sun.

Lessons learned that come into play throughout life in general.

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

Bathroom Directive and the art of Despotism

From Amash to Zeldin
Citizenry Register
Bathroom Directive and the art of Despotism
By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            
               In an outburst of savage temper, our first President spoke of “those from whom we seek protection” were the “cause” of the conflict that brought to us … America. “(They) are endeavouring by every piece of Art & despotism to fix the Shackles of Slavery upon us,” he thundered.
George Washington supported a total trade embargo with Britain as a result of their deafness to the issues the colonies faced. He and our soon to be First Lady, Martha, then explained together that the stepwise, inevitable move to “arbitrary Government” by Great Britain had the affect of reducing Americans to the status of “Slaves”.
Is there any difference in what the majority of Americans are now trying to sort through? From the capricious break down of limitation of this federal government of late, maybe a place to start this discourse is … their bathroom.
Citizenry Register
The Federal Register has become the daily sign post from which we get word of the next federal mandate being staged for imposition on us as a society. The scope and breadth of it is beyond the ability of any one person to absorb. Even its format leaves an ominous and threatening impression. It is past the point the Citizenry needs its own source of information being planned for action against this government to get the attention of “those from whom we seek protection”. Its form would look and appear as follows:

[Citizenry Register Volume 1, Number 1 (Sunday, June 5, 2016]
[Notices]
[Pages 33500-33700]
From the Citizenry Register Online via the Citizenry Publishing Office
[FR Doc No: 2016- blah, blah, blah … blah]

Initiation of 2-Year Status Reviews of 43 House Republicans who voted for Obama’s       Transgender Agenda

AGENCY: Native Born American Citizens
ACTION: Notice of initiation of reviews; request for information

SUMMARY: We, the Native Born American Citizenry, are initiating a 2-year status review under the Constitution, as amended, of 43 House Republicans. A 2-year status review is based on the best personal and voting record data available at the time of the review; therefore, we are requesting submission of any new information on these office holders that has become available since the last election of said specimens.

DATES: To ensure consideration in our reviews, we are requesting submission of new information no later than July 26, 2016. However, we will continue to accept new information about any listed office holder at any time.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information on a particular office holder, contact the appropriate person or office listed in the table in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section. Individuals who are hearing impaired or speech impaired may call the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339 for TTY assistance in that you have paid a ton of money to keep that exchange in salary, bonus, and retirement benefits.
            The Agenda spinsters
            On May 25, 43 House Republicans joined Democrats to vote for this president’s transgender agenda. They voted for what is known as the Maloney amendment, which ratified this fellow’s 2014 executive order barring private businesses that do contract work for the federal monstrosity from engaging in discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in their private employment policies.
            In other words, the feds want to read your bathroom policies, and, if you don’t have any bathroom policies, you’d better write some that they like and approve. No longer does simple amiga/amigo signage suffice. On the contrary, Amiga has a growing series of definitions that cannot be found in Webster.
            American businesses are no longer free to contract with their government without threat of penalty toward their beliefs of issues that six months were not even on their radar. Up until then, Amiga had a skirt and Amigo was wearing a sombrero. It didn’t matter what color the skirt or the sombrero were. They just needed to be reasonable renditions of the subject. They simply signified a place of reasonable sanctuary for a mandatory two minute stop.
            With the help of 43 intact boors, this is now altered from a matter of propriety to a statutory gender identity quagmire. What are they thinking? If they want to wear a skirt or sombrero on their own time, who cares? I don’t and neither does the horse they rode in on, but …a debacle it will be.
            This isn’t about transgender bathroom stops. It will span locker rooms, showers, dorms, overnight hotels, and all other places that the agenda seeks to permeate. Our country cannot close its borders, but it can open bathroom doors to all comers. The action converts the presidential order to law through future appropriation measures. The 43 Republicans have effectively required American businesses to embrace the transgender agenda. Try to find that in the Constitution or in their sworn oath of office.
            Sexual orientation and gender identity now have special legal status. They represent protected citizens. Christians are not. They are required to find protection in their beliefs by seeking remedies through existing religious liberties, but don’t count on that being easy. This fellow’s agenda seeks to demolish those protections. This isn’t just bad policy. It is fundamental alteration of the duty of the federal government to defend and enforce civility and private rights. Washington would never have embraced such a travesty. Morality guided his principles, but so did his convictions that he must do everything possible to uphold functioning domestic governance.
            We find in his writings a reference to a looming “Propriety of a Separation” from that oppressive government in its “war against its own citizens”. “In breaching the sacred principle … the ministry had renounced its right to govern.”
            To patriots, he insisted, “it was no longer an option but a necessity to “shake off all Connexions with a State so unjust & … unnatural.”
            The 43
            Michigan’s Justin Amash leads the list of names supporting this Obama agenda effort. His actions leave too many in a state of incredulity. Representative Amash has never been a bleeding heart by any measure. In fact, his Freedom Index rating (rating as tied to Constitutional adherence) is superb. He has consistently been rated at the top of the short list of those congressmen whose efforts have been aimed at maintaining vigil over Originality. His average rating for this entire tenure in Congress is 94%. He had a score of 95% in the 2nd Semester of the 114th  Congress and an astounding 100% in the 1st Semester, thereof.
            On the other end of the spectrum are numbers of Republicans with failing Index ratings. One example is Texas’ Will Hurd, whose 23rd congressional district stretches eight hundred miles from San Antonio on the east to El Paso County on the west. Sworn into his office January 6, 2015, Hurd voted 96% with his party’s position on roll call votes. His Freedom Index, however, was a dismal 60%. He is the only member of Congress who served in the CIA during the War on Terror. He is the first black Republican congressman elected from the state of Texas. He is against building a wall on his district’s international boundary.
            Of the other 41 who embraced the agenda, ten are from the West and 31 are from the East. With their vote, each has served notice that liberal judges will now do all they can to assure that sexual orientation and gender identification … trump religious protections, privacy, and safety.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “I know a few of my high school buddies would have embraced this debacle with gusto. Let no one be presumptuous, however … none of the mother’s of the girls I knew would have appreciated their daughters being exposed to the intentions of those characters.”

Baxter Black - Spirited, but gentle

Freddy was two hours late. He was supposed to furnish Elroy a horse. Elroy and I sat in the shade while the others had gone on ahead. We waited for Freddy. Elroy was nervous. He hoped the horse would be gentle.

Finally Freddy came strollin’ up.

“Where ya been?” Elroy exclaimed.

“I been tryin’ to catch yer horse!” Freddy replied.

“Wait a minute,” Elroy said, cautiously, “He’s not a bad one, is he?”

“Oh, no. Just a little spirited ... but gentle.”

“Whattaya mean?”

“Well,” Freddy explained, “I walked right up to him. He ate the grain right outta my hand. But as I reached to slip the halter shank over his poll, he wheeled and kicked the back of my hand, and that buckle on the halter whacked me smack behind the ear!

“I tell you, I went and saddled another horse and chased him plumb to the back of the pasture. I got a loop over his head and choked him down. I hobbled his front feet, but it’s a good thing I left the lass rope and the halter on him because he broke my hobbles!

“I tied him to an oak tree to sideline the bugger and bounced him off the ground a couple of times to establish a working relationship. I got him saddled and left him to soak a while. That’s why I’m late.”

“You sure he’s gentle?” Elroy asked, his skin blotching.

“Oh, yeah. Spirited, but gentle. Especially after standin’ there fightin’ that oak tree for an hour. I got back and the roots were showin’! I blindfolded him, snubbed him up tight and slipped on a big spade bit the size of a Copenhagen lid! I put a tiedown on him and pulled it down until he looked like he was checkin’ himself for pinworms! For insurance, I added a warbridle I’d built out of a bicycle chain.

“I swung up in the strirrups, jerked off the blindfold and rode him right up to the trailer. Behaved perfectly! But when I leaned to dismount, he broke in two! He stuck a front foot through the windshield of my dually and climbed over the top! I was still hung in the left stirrup when he dove off the cab! I hooked a spur in the side mirror and durn near jerked my foot off, but it stopped him dead in his tracks.

Expanding Pecos Wilderness a dangerous proposal

By José J. Varela López 

A proposal by the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Wilderness Society has suggested that adding 120,000 acres to the Pecos Wilderness would protect those lands in perpetuity.

We all value the watersheds and recreational opportunities on our federally managed lands, yet to truly protect our natural resources over the long-term, nobody should support this proposal which would permanently set-aside more of our national forests from multiple uses and other associated benefits.

There is no shortage of wilderness within the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests.

The Pecos Wilderness already encompasses over 223,000 acres of land that cannot be managed for access nor to adequately reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, insects and disease.

Expanding the wilderness area by another 120,000 acres is not a “modest” addition. Instead, it would jeopardize the values we are trying to protect, whether it’s the local water supply, firewood gathering, recreation and hunting, air quality or the local economy.

There are claims that some of the new wilderness would fall under a special management designation. Even if such a designation legally permitted the reduction of forest fuel loads, it would be a mistake to add yet another layer of bureaucracy on federal land managers who are already struggling to implement critical projects on the ground.

...In order to truly “protect” an area, forest restoration may need to occur, which is precisely the reason that the Rio Grande Water Fund was developed and why there is such strong support for forest restoration.

We cannot protect the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests and our water resources by tying the hands of Forest Service personnel on the ground.

Deming Man Sentenced For Removing Broken Parts Of Mimbres Pottery

A Deming man has been sentenced to two years of probation for digging on federal land and removing several pieces of broken Mimbres pottery in southern New Mexico. Federal prosecutors say 81-year-old Michael Quarrel must also pay more than $1,500 in restitution to cover the cost of damages to an archaeological resource. While on probation, Quarrel will be banned from land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. Quarrel pleaded guilty in January to violating the Archaeological Resource Protection Act in September 2013. He was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Las Cruces...more

Historic Emerald Ridge Ranch offered for $8.95M

Steamboat Springs — The 780-acre Emerald Ridge Ranch, the largest remaining property in close proximity to Steamboat’s southern city limits, is being offered for sale for the first time in its history at $8.95 million. The entrance to the property is 3.5 miles south of Mount Werner Road, and the acreage begins west of Routt County Road 14. The ranch’s original owner is the Lufkin family, which, at one time, owned of most of the South Valley, according to broker Ren Martyn of Steamboat Sotheby’s International Realty. Herbert C. Lufkin established the property in 1919 and sold it to his son, Don Lufkin, in the 1950s, who, in turn, sold it to his nephew, Doug Scott, in 1994. Scott still owns the property, along with his sons, through an LLC. Longtime resident Don Lufkin was a Routt County icon, rancher, philanthropist and United States Navy veteran who died in 2012. “There’s so much history here with this property,” Martyn said. “If that cabin could speak, it would be volumes of Routt County lore.”...more

Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1626

Our gospel tune today is Where Beautiful Flowers Grow by Moon Mullican.

https://youtu.be/HPjrVz0W7b4

Friday, June 03, 2016

Monument plan a grass-roots movement, supporters say

Tragedy and betrayal populate the history of the Navajo people, who were forced from their homeland in the 1860s by a federal government that treated them as a conquered people rather than native citizens. A century of abuses followed the tribe's return to a reservation straddling the Four Corners, but for generations a beacon of hope jutted up on the northern horizon, according to Willie Grayeyes, a Navajo who leads the grass-roots nonprofit Utah Dine Bikeyah. In English, the twin land forms became known as Bears Ears Buttes, because of their resemblance to the furry nubs rising off an ursine head. "My elders and medicine people point to the north at social gathering, ceremonies, chapter meetings, reference Bears Ears and say, 'That's where my great-great-grandmother and grandfather used to live, or hunt or sweat.' That psychological attachment is still there. It never has been damaged by weather, rain or wind. And that's what I understood the attachment is, like mother to child, more closer than anybody else," Grayeyes told a gathering of about 70 people Wednesday at the Urban Indian Center in Salt Lake City. The people came to hear about his group's proposal, endorsed by a multitude of tribes, for a 1.9-million-acre national monument protecting these twin buttes and surrounding public lands, including Cedar Mesa, Grand Gulch, White Canyon, Comb Ridge and the Abajo Mountains — a scenic landscape rich in archaeology and held sacred. Four other Utah Dine Bikeyah (UDB) board members addressed the meeting, part of a tour around Utah and neighboring states to discuss with Native Americans their monument proposal, which has become deeply controversial...more

You must have respect for the Elders.  But were they pointing at the whole 1.9 million acres or just to the twin buttes?

Getting 'High on Life' lands Canadian men in hot water for Yellowstone stunt

Authorities in Yellowstone national park are urging a group of Canadian men accused of tramping off trail and dabbing in a delicate hot spring to turn themselves in, after images were posted on social media of their reported antics there and across a string of American “national treasures”. Federal warrants have been issued in Wyoming for the arrest of the four friends, who market themselves under variations of their Vancouver-based clothing and entertainment brand High on Life. The men were recorded on video last month striding out of bounds across the fragile, psychedelic landscape at the spectacular Grand Prismatic Spring in the heart of Yellowstone. Some of them could be seen dipping their hands in the large thermal pool. The incident followed an earlier episode where they went wake-boarding behind their bright blue touring vehicle across the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah during the spring wet season. But the Bonneville and Yellowstone incidents were just the latest in a series of stunts that have garnered the men both fans and withering contempt online for, variously, allegedly swinging on a rope from Corona Arch in Utah, which is banned; going into prohibited areas at Machu Picchu in Peru; and climbing on the Holocaust memorial in Berlin...more

Hunting the hunters

ROBLIN, Man. — Gary Fletcher looks exactly how a cattleman should look. 
 With a greying mustache and the eyes of someone who has spent countless hours peering into the distance looking for cattle, Fletcher wore cowboy boots, spurs, chaps, a black hat and a scarf on a stormy afternoon in late May. 
 Fletcher, manager of a community pasture near Roblin, Man., chooses to dress in the customary cowboy gear, but he also carries a traditional tool for the job: a rifle. 
 The gun isn’t a decoration. He has used it more than 20 times to shoot wolves that attacked cattle in Manitoba’s Parkland region.
 Fletcher was a pasture manager near Ethelbert, Man., for 17 years before taking a position at the Roblin community pasture this year. Standing by a corral at the pasture, Fletcher said there’s been an upsurge in wolf attacks over the last five to 10 years near Manitoba’s Duck Mountain Provincial Park.
 “There was the odd kill (17 years ago, but) it gradually started increasing…. This past season there were certain areas of the (Ethelbert) pasture where we were having one kill a week,” Fletcher said inside a shed next to the corral as hail hammered down on the metal roof.
 “That’s a 350 to 400 pound calf on a weekly basis until we were able to target that one (wolf) and got him.”
 However, the increase in wolf attacks isn’t limited to cattle ranches adjacent to Duck Mountain and Riding Mountain National Park. Wolves have also moved well outside their traditional range and now populate southern and western parts of Manitoba, Fletcher said.
..more

Interior Dept. expands offshore wind program to New York

The federal government is expanding its offshore wind energy program to New York, the Department of Interior announced Thursday. More than 81,000 acres of the Atlantic Ocean off the New York coast will be available for wind energy leases, the department announced Thursday. The section of ocean is in the New York Wind Energy Area, a portion of the outer continental shelf 11 miles south of Long Island. The department will publish a sales notice in the Federal Register on Monday, opening a 60-day public comment period. "These are significant steps for our federal offshore renewable energy program," said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. The leasing sale of the 81,130 acres of ocean will be done online and go to the highest bidder...more

Families of two killed with stolen ICE and BLM agent’s guns file complaint against agency

The families of two people killed with guns stolen from federal agents are seeking to hold those agencies accountable for the crimes committed with their weapons. The family of Antonio Ramos, a 27-year-old artist shot and killed while painting an anti-violence mural in Oakland last year, filed a complaint against U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement on Thursday because the gun used in the shooting was stolen days earlier from an ICE agent’s car. The law firm representing the Ramos family — Burlingame-based Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy — also filed a federal lawsuit last week on behalf of the family of 32-year-old Kate Steinle, a woman shot and killed in San Francisco last summer with a weapon stolen from a federal Bureau of Land Management agent’s car...more

Still no word on what that BLM agent was doing in San Francisco.  See our previous questions on this here and here.

Canadian Man Pleads Guilty To Picking Up Bison Calf, Given Six Months Probation

A French Canadian received six months of probation after pleading guilty Thursday to putting a bison calf in his car at Yellowstone National Park because he thought the animal was cold. Shamash Kassam should pay $500 to the Yellowstone Park Foundation Wildlife Protection Fund, federal magistrate Mark Carman ordered at the Yellowstone Justice Center. Kassam will also serve six months of unsupervised probation, as well as pay a $200 fine. Park officials cited Kassam on May 17 for disturbing wildlife. According to the citation, Kassam put the bison calf in his car because it was “wet and shivering” and drove to a ranger station. Yellowstone officials later euthanized the bison calf after the human interaction caused the animal to be rejected by its herd. Kassam told a park ranger he saw the baby bison in the middle of the road near Buffalo Ranch, according to the citation. He said he did not see any other bison in the vicinity and he waited 20 minutes to see if any adult bison would come back for the calf. Kassam said the animal appeared to be seeking warmth from his car’s engine...more

Meteor sightings in New Mexico caught on camera


ROSWELL, N.M.(KRQE) – Around 5 a.m Thursday, a huge fireball shot through the sky, visible from Arizona all the way to here in New Mexico. It’s a sight that caught a lot of people waiting for the sunrise off guard. “I saw was a bright light, I turn around and I see another bright light and then I just see it go down,” said Tony Rodriguez, who saw the light in Alamogordo. Rodriguez was working this morning when he saw the bright flash of light. Making sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, he checked this video on his work’s security camera. “You just don’t know what to expect.. You kind of think all kinds of silly things,” said Rodriguez. Astronomers believe the fiery flash was most likely a meteor hurtling through the sky. Some of the flashes were so bright they lit up the sky like midday...more

Go to the link for the KRQE video report.