Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
Environmentalism Was Once a Social-Justice Movement, It Can Be Again.
Editorial - The Barbara Boxer Water Rebellion
Barbara Boxer has torpedoed more legislation than she’s helped pass during her four terms in the Senate. Before retiring for good (literally), the Bay Area Democrat is trying to sink a water bill that could provide modest relief to farmers in California’s parched Central Valley.
Congress plans to vote this week on bipartisan legislation that would authorize a variety of water projects including port dredging, reservoirs, fish hatcheries, lake recreation and wetlands restoration. The package also includes $120 million to fix Flint, Michigan’s corroded pipes and other aging municipal water systems.
Yet Ms. Boxer has blown a gasket over a rider inserted by House Republicans and her Democratic colleague Dianne Feinstein that would direct the Departments of Interior and Commerce to operate the pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta at the maximum levels allowed by law. “There is no place for that as long as I am breathing,” Ms. Boxer declared.
After five years of drought, California’s Central Valley is desperate for water. During this year’s El Nino, farmers south of the Delta received a mere 5% of their contractual allocations. A half-million acres of land have been withdrawn from farm production, and groundwater tables are dangerously low. Unemployment exceeds 9% in the Valley.
Even amid heavy storms, only 852,000 of the 5.5 million acre-feet of water that flowed into the Delta during the first two months of this year—enough to sustain nearly two million acres of farm land—was sent south. The rest drained into the San Francisco Bay due to a lack of surface storage in the Sierras and pumping restrictions ostensibly intended to protect endangered species...more
Two Minors Accused of Starting the Tennessee Wildfires that Killed 14
Two juveniles have been accused of starting the deadly November wildfires in Tennessee, which have claimed 14 lives so far and are still burning, PEOPLE confirms.
Both juveniles have been charged with aggravated arson and booked into the Sevier County Juvenile Detention Center in Tennessee, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Wednesday.
They were arrested Wednesday, bureau spokeswoman Leslie Earhart says.
The suspects have not been identified, and the TBI says no further information is available from its office.
The suspects are residents of Tennessee but are not from Sevier County, Earhart says. The suspects’ ages, genders and other identifying information was not available, she says.
“During the course of the investigation, information was developed that two juveniles allegedly started the fire,” the TBI said in its statement. Earhart declined to comment further, including on how the fires may have allegedly been started.
She says “it’s possible” more suspects could be arrested: “We haven’t ruled anything out.”...more
Westerman's forest-managing bill languishes as fires rage
With flames charring forests across much of the South, legislation to overhaul federal forest management remains motionless on Capitol Hill, stuck in the U.S. Senate after passing in the U.S. House of Representatives more than a year ago.
Opposition from the White House helped slow the legislation, which provides a mechanism to increase firefighting dollars but also eases environmental restrictions in some instances.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, the bill's original sponsor, said he remains hopeful that its key provisions will be included in a larger energy bill that lawmakers hope to pass by year's end.
If not, the Hot Springs Republican said, he is confident that the proposal will advance once President-elect Donald Trump and his appointees take office...more
Jaguar photograph taken by Fort Huachuca trail camera
The Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service recently received a photograph of a jaguar taken by a Fort
Huachuca trail camera in the Huachuca Mountains. Fort Huachuca is a U.S.
Army installation near Sierra Vista in southeastern Arizona.
“Preliminary indications are that the cat is a male jaguar and, potentially, an individual not previously seen in Arizona,” said Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, regional director for the Southwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We are working with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to determine if this sighting represents a new individual jaguar.”
“While this is exciting news, we are examining photographic evidence to determine if we’re seeing a new cat here, or if this is an animal that has been seen in Arizona before,” said Jim deVos, assistant director of the department’s Wildlife Management Division. “We look forward to partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and thoroughly vetting the evidence.”
AZGFD, USFWS and Fort Huachuca personnel will notify the public when the final determination is made.
Press Release
“Preliminary indications are that the cat is a male jaguar and, potentially, an individual not previously seen in Arizona,” said Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, regional director for the Southwest Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We are working with the Arizona Game and Fish Department to determine if this sighting represents a new individual jaguar.”
“While this is exciting news, we are examining photographic evidence to determine if we’re seeing a new cat here, or if this is an animal that has been seen in Arizona before,” said Jim deVos, assistant director of the department’s Wildlife Management Division. “We look forward to partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and thoroughly vetting the evidence.”
AZGFD, USFWS and Fort Huachuca personnel will notify the public when the final determination is made.
Press Release
Snow geese deaths from mine pit number in the thousands
Several thousand snow geese died after a snowstorm forced tens of thousands of the migratory birds to take refuge in the acidic, metal-laden waters of an old open pit mine in Montana last week.
But the toll could have been much worse, said Mark Thompson, environmental affairs manager for mine company Montana Resources. Along with the Atlantic Richfield Co., Montana Resources is responsible for Berkeley Pit, a Superfund site in Butte.
Witnesses said the pit looked like “700 acres of white birds,” on Nov. 28, Thompson said Tuesday.
Since then, employees of MR and Arco have used spotlights, noise makers and other efforts to haze the birds off the water and try to prevent others from landing.
The companies estimate that over 90 percent of the birds were chased off by the morning of Nov. 29, Thompson said...more
Message to new president on our dying forests
For nearly 100 years, the Forest Service managed the Forest Reserves (now the National Forest System) to meet the demand for housing products and aid in economic recoveries from domestic recessions by providing a stable supply of forest products.
Our timber output topped out at nearly 12 billion board feet in 1985, but a few timber sales were not well thought-out. A concerned Congress, fueled by newly formed environmental groups, mandated restrictive legislation to tightly regulate how our National Forests would be managed. Decisions once couched in sound science were now subject to often uninformed public opinion, illegitimate science and extreme political persuasion through the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Aided by the 1987 Salvage Rider, ensuing litigation through the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) sparked what is well known as the “War in the Woods” that continues to this day. Rural economies plummeted when decoupled from raw product removal and legal property tax offsets. Many mills have closed due to lack of wood to keep them in operation and the inability of the US Forest Service to guarantee supply.
The rise in green power groups as well as politically charged assertions about the government “raping the land” and “lawless logging” clouded the fact that nationally, high harvest levels in the 80s never exceeded 50% of forest growth. The timber harvests of the 80s helped lead this nation out of a deep economic recession. Today, forest growth far exceeds the ability to thin the overstocked trees because forests are not actively managed.
Since the passage of NEPA and its subsequent reinterpretation by judicial proceedings, our nation’s forests suffer immeasurable environmental degradation that threaten their very existence and those who live in close proximity to them. Insects, disease and wildfire consume forests at rates not present in the historic record. With a rapidly warming climate, this damage will increase every passing year. The current framework of laws, rules and court decisions
threatens clean water, local economies and preservation of our National
Forests for future generations with the following results...more
Forest Service Agrees to Halt Oil, Gas Leasing in Los Padres National Fores
The U.S. Forest Service is halting new oil and gas leasing throughout the Los Padres National Forest, which prompted a federal court today to stay ongoing litigation against the agency by conservation groups. The leasing suspension will allow the Forest Service to consider the risks of fracking and drilling in the southern and central California forest to air and water quality and endangered animals like the California condor.
The Forest Service suspended its leasing plan in response to an October 2016 notice of intent to sue from the Center for Biological Diversity, Los Padres ForestWatch and Defenders of Wildlife. That notice was accompanied by a letter detailing significant new information about fracking and oil development, not known when the Service approved the plan more than a decade ago.
The leasing suspension places a hold on a decade-long legal battle initiated by the conservation groups to protect public lands slated for oil development. The agency agreed to suspend its 2005 decision that allowed expanded oil and gas leasing and development throughout the forest.
The Forest Service’s suspension oil and gas leasing will allow officials to complete additional environmental review and consult with federal wildlife biologists under the Endangered Species Act...more
Bugs Butchering Nation’s Forests
In a towering forest of centuries-old eastern hemlocks, it’s easy to miss one of the tree’s nemeses. No larger than a speck of pepper, the Hemlock woolly adelgid spends its life on the underside of needles sucking sap, eventually killing the tree.
The bug is one in an expanding army of insects draining the life out of forests from New England to the West Coast. Aided by global trade, warming climate and drought-weakened trees, the invaders have become one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in the United States.
Scientists say they already are driving some tree species toward extinction and are causing billions of dollars a year in damage — and the situation is expected to worsen.
“They are one of the few things that can actually eliminate a forest tree species in pretty short order — within years,” said Harvard University ecologist David Orwig as he walked past dead hemlocks scattered across the university’s 5.8-square-mile research forest in Petersham.
This scourge is projected to put 63 percent of the country’s forest at risk through 2027 and carries a cost of several billion dollars annually in dead tree removal, declining property values and timber industry losses, according to a peer-reviewed study this year in Ecological Applications.
That examination, by more than a dozen experts, found that hundreds of pests have invaded the nation’s forests, and that the emerald ash borer alone has the potential to cause $12.7 billion in damage by 2020...more
Editorial: Shared management plan for San Rafael Swell area worth study
The San Rafael Swell near Goblin Valley State Park is — dare we say it — worthy of a national monument.That's not to say the president should
declare one, but it is an acknowledgement that the Temple Mountain area
of the Swell is one of the most spectacular areas in Utah's redrock
country. It's also a nod to the fact that the area has been living on
borrowed time and needs more protection. As recreation grows throughout southern Utah,
areas like Temple Mountain have seen the impact of visitors grow with
it. New campsites and ATV trails continue to emerge, leading to a
decline in the quality of landscape for those visiting. That is why an effort by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to consider a new way of managing the Temple Mountain area is welcome. And the direction BLM is headed should help
get Utah political leaders' support — in large part because it could be
the state and Emery County handling much of the federal-lands
management. The model is one county away near Moab.
Created in 1995, the Sand Flats Recreation Area is home to the legendary
Slickrock and Porcupine Rim mountain bike trails, as well as more than
40 miles of Jeep trails. It's situated between wilderness study areas,
national parks and the LaSal Mountains, and it receives almost 150,000
visitors each year. There are two aspects of Sand Flats that are
pertinent to Temple Mountain. First, it is BLM land managed in a
partnership with Grand County. Second, visitors must pay a fee that goes
to maintain and improve recreational infrastructure...more
Western counties join in opposition to BLM’s land-use planning reg
One western Colorado county has sought help to halt the Bureau of Land Management’s Planning 2.0, an Obama-administration rule touted as a way of improving the management of federal lands.
County officials in western Colorado have regularly lambasted Planning 2.0 and this week, Garfield County joined in with five other counties in the western United States considering suing to halt the rule, which they have criticized as a central-planning measure.
The BLM this month announced that the rule was final and on Monday, Garfield County agreed to spend as much as $40,000 with the Texas-based property-rights organization, the American Stewards of Liberty, to halt it.
While Garfield County is taking an active role, Mesa County officials are looking to Congress and a Republican administration under President-elect Donald Trump to deal with the new rule.
“I’m hopeful the new administration will push back” on regulations that have been introduced in recent weeks and months, said Mesa County Commission Chairwoman Rose Pugliese.
“People don’t realize how much power is being taken away from local field offices” under the new planning rule, Pugliese said. American Stewards of Liberty is working with several counties around the West, including Garfield County, to help them deal with the BLM, said Executive Director Margaret Byfield.
The new rules, which have yet to be published in the Federal Register, appear to address how the BLM must deal with the public and state and tribal governments, but not local governments, such as counties, Byfield said.
“They have no process or procedures for local governments in theses new rules,” Byfield said.
Current rules require BLM managers to work with counties in a public setting as the BLM explains its management goals to local officials, usually county commissioners or the like, who are responsible for health, safety and welfare on the lands the BLM manages, Byfield said...more
Cliven Bundy, wife Carol injured in separate accidents
Relatives of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his wife, Carol Bundy, say the couple was injured in two serious accidents earlier this week.
In a message posted on social media Tuesday, the Bundys’ daughter, Bailey Bundy-Rogue, said her mother Carol had been injured in a crash outside Mesquite, Nev.
“This morning I got a call that my mom had been in a roll over accident,” she wrote. “She is going to be ‘OK’ but she is really banged up, bruised and in a lot pain. It’s a miracle she is with us tonight.”
Bundy-Rogue said they had just returned with her mother to the family’s home when she learned her father, Cliven, 70, had been injured in a jailhouse fall.
“As we were getting her all settled in at home we received a call that my dad (Cliven) had an accident in jail today. He fell really hard and is in a lot of pain. They took him to the infirmary and they told him he was fine, gave him an aspirin and threw him back in his pod. He is not OK. He is in A LOT of pain. My brother says he can hardly move and it is not OK. It’s killing me that I cant be with him.”...more
Texas Ranchers Cry Foul as Government Eyes Their Land
The Bureau of Land Management is claiming huge swaths of land near the Red River. The land’s owners are suing to keep it.
Ken Aderholt holds the deed to 700 acres of land near the Red River, on the border between Texas and Oklahoma. The plot has been in his family since 1941, and he has paid all of his taxes on it. “It has been running through generations and handed on down to me,” he said late last year. But three years ago, that lineage was threatened by a familiar culprit: the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is the Department of Interior agency in charge of administering the nation’s 247 million acres of publicly owned land. Every ten to 15 years, the bureau creates a resource-management plan, which outlines its goals and directives for the lands under its control. And in July 2013, the BLM entered the early stages of its January 2018 plan by notifying the public of 90,000 acres along the Red River that it deems to be federal land, much of which is owned by Texas ranchers such as Aderholt. Last year, the Aderholts and six other families whose land is threatened, backed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the law firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry, filed a lawsuit against the BLM. “My clients simply want to own the land they own without being under the cloud of the government’s claims,” Austin Curry, a founding partner at Caldwell Cassady & Curry tells National Review. “The case has had a very real impact on real people.” At issue in the case is the meaning of a 1923 Supreme Court decision, Oklahoma v. Texas, which concerned a dispute between the two states and the federal government over ownership of the Red River riverbed. Curry and the plaintiffs’ counsel argue that Oklahoma v. Texas clearly defines what land belongs to the BLM, Oklahoma, and Texas: Oklahoma controls land north of the river’s medial line (the line designating the river’s middle point), Texas controls land below the south bank, and the BLM controls the sliver of land between the medial line and the south bank. The thousands of acres the BLM is now claiming as its own were, in 1923, still part of the river. But in the 90 years since, the river has receded and the disputed acres have become grassland. Legally, the question is whether that change was caused by a sudden avulsion (when a riverbank is altered in a catastrophic event) or a more gradual erosion or accretion. If the changed landscape resulted from avulsion, the boundaries established in 1923 remain in effect, and the land belongs to the BLM. If avulsion cannot be proven, it must be assumed that erosion or accretion was the cause of the shift, and the land belongs to the plaintiffs. Assuming avulsion can be proven, the BLM’s legal case is that “while everyone else’s boundary followed the Red River through the gradual erosion of the riverbank, that with the 1923 case, their [the BLM’s] boundary remained fixed,” Robert Henneke, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for the American Future, said. The BLM declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, but pointed to a letter written in 2014 by BLM director Neil Kornze explaining the bureau’s legal justification. Citing Oklahoma v. Texas and Congress’s consent to a 2000 compact establishing the jurisdictional and political border between Texas and Oklahoma as the river’s vegetation line, the letter argues that a shift in the river’s boundary may cause federal land to fall within the current boundary of Texas. But the Congressional Compact explicitly states that titles to private or public land would not be affected by such a shift. Which means the case hinges on Oklahoma v. Texas’s boundaries, and the question of the river’s accretion, avulsion, and erosion remains...more
22 Texas Congressmen have filed an amicus brief in support of the land owners. For more background on this issue I've embedded the brief below.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8Yd5M8kgeNtVndlcUxaR0p1N2s
Ken Aderholt holds the deed to 700 acres of land near the Red River, on the border between Texas and Oklahoma. The plot has been in his family since 1941, and he has paid all of his taxes on it. “It has been running through generations and handed on down to me,” he said late last year. But three years ago, that lineage was threatened by a familiar culprit: the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is the Department of Interior agency in charge of administering the nation’s 247 million acres of publicly owned land. Every ten to 15 years, the bureau creates a resource-management plan, which outlines its goals and directives for the lands under its control. And in July 2013, the BLM entered the early stages of its January 2018 plan by notifying the public of 90,000 acres along the Red River that it deems to be federal land, much of which is owned by Texas ranchers such as Aderholt. Last year, the Aderholts and six other families whose land is threatened, backed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the law firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry, filed a lawsuit against the BLM. “My clients simply want to own the land they own without being under the cloud of the government’s claims,” Austin Curry, a founding partner at Caldwell Cassady & Curry tells National Review. “The case has had a very real impact on real people.” At issue in the case is the meaning of a 1923 Supreme Court decision, Oklahoma v. Texas, which concerned a dispute between the two states and the federal government over ownership of the Red River riverbed. Curry and the plaintiffs’ counsel argue that Oklahoma v. Texas clearly defines what land belongs to the BLM, Oklahoma, and Texas: Oklahoma controls land north of the river’s medial line (the line designating the river’s middle point), Texas controls land below the south bank, and the BLM controls the sliver of land between the medial line and the south bank. The thousands of acres the BLM is now claiming as its own were, in 1923, still part of the river. But in the 90 years since, the river has receded and the disputed acres have become grassland. Legally, the question is whether that change was caused by a sudden avulsion (when a riverbank is altered in a catastrophic event) or a more gradual erosion or accretion. If the changed landscape resulted from avulsion, the boundaries established in 1923 remain in effect, and the land belongs to the BLM. If avulsion cannot be proven, it must be assumed that erosion or accretion was the cause of the shift, and the land belongs to the plaintiffs. Assuming avulsion can be proven, the BLM’s legal case is that “while everyone else’s boundary followed the Red River through the gradual erosion of the riverbank, that with the 1923 case, their [the BLM’s] boundary remained fixed,” Robert Henneke, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for the American Future, said. The BLM declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, but pointed to a letter written in 2014 by BLM director Neil Kornze explaining the bureau’s legal justification. Citing Oklahoma v. Texas and Congress’s consent to a 2000 compact establishing the jurisdictional and political border between Texas and Oklahoma as the river’s vegetation line, the letter argues that a shift in the river’s boundary may cause federal land to fall within the current boundary of Texas. But the Congressional Compact explicitly states that titles to private or public land would not be affected by such a shift. Which means the case hinges on Oklahoma v. Texas’s boundaries, and the question of the river’s accretion, avulsion, and erosion remains...more
22 Texas Congressmen have filed an amicus brief in support of the land owners. For more background on this issue I've embedded the brief below.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8Yd5M8kgeNtVndlcUxaR0p1N2s
$1,000 reward for catching ugly fish from Wyoming reservoir
GREEN RIVER, Wyo. (AP) — A $1,000 reward has been posted for catching an ugly fish out of Fontenelle Reservoir in western Wyoming.
The fish are called burbot (BUR'-but) and they're not native to the upper Green River drainage. Burbot compete with native game species including trout.
Burbot are eel-like but said to be good eating despite their appearance.
Getting more people to fish for burbot is one way to reduce their numbers, so Game and Fish and Trout Unlimited are sponsoring a burbot raffle. Game and Fish has caught 25 burbot and tagged them with raffle tags. The Rock Springs Rocket-Miner reports (http://bit.ly/2hexzzB ) anybody who catches a tagged burbot from Fontenelle may enter a raffle with a $1,000 grand prize. The drawing will take place at a burbot fishing rally at Fontenelle Jan. 7-8.
Ranch Radio Song of the Day #1746
Also requested was Tony Booth and here he is with Cinderella. The tune is on his 2008 album Is This All There To A Honky Tonk.
https://youtu.be/JnT73tq3MWQ
https://youtu.be/JnT73tq3MWQ
Tuesday, December 06, 2016
USGS Fails to Explain Decades of Data Manipulation, Management Failures and Culture of Harassment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 6, 2016
CONTACT: Parish Braden, Elise Daniel or Molly Block (202) 226-9019
CONTACT: Parish Braden, Elise Daniel or Molly Block (202) 226-9019
Washington, D.C. –
Today, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held an
oversight hearing to examine decades of data manipulation at the United
States Geological Survey (USGS), generally recognized as a preeminent
scientific organization of the federal government.
The
Department of the Interior Inspector General and a Scientific Integrity
Review Panel both found a chronic pattern of scientific misconduct
dating back to 1996 at the Inorganic Section of the
USGS Energy Resources Program Geochemistry Laboratory in Lakewood,
Colorado. These pervasive problems damaged the lab’s credibility and
resulted in its permanent closure in 2016.
“More
than the millions of dollars in lost projects, the USGS has sustained a
black eye that may not quickly heal. As much as I’d like to dismiss
this issue, I simply cannot. As the facts come
out, it seems to just open up more questions,” Subcommittee Chairman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said.
Despite
audits and internal investigations, the overall impact and the
rationale behind the data manipulation are not known and USGS Deputy
Director William Werkheiser could not provide any further
insight.
“When
you’ve got decades of falsified, manipulated data, we all recognize
it’s inexcusable. It’s phenomenal that something like that can take
place for so long and not be checked,”
Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) stated.
One
of the chemists who intentionally manipulated data was recognized for
their 30 years of service this year. Performance reviews, information on
any disciplinary action and other records requested
in September by the Committee have not yet been shared, but Mr.
Werkheiser committed to a two week timeline to finally provide these
documents to the Committee.
Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) was left “at a loss for words” when he asked if “any
data derived from the lab during this period
affect[ed] any federal or state regulations? If you don’t know what
projects were done, obviously there’s no way to determine if the
research affected any state or federal regulations.”
“I cannot address that with any certainty. That is true,”
Werkheiser responded.
In
addition to intentional data manipulation, an investigation of the lab
found “overall toxic work conditions” and reports of harassment provided
by “junior female staff.” Mr. Werkheiser admitted
to management failures within USGS.
“It sounds like there is a lot more work that needs to be done,”
Gohmert said.
“I would certainly agree,”
Werkheiser answered.
Click
here to view full witness testimony.
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Yd5M8kgeNtNFBvTFBETHhtMHM/view?usp=sharing
Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell to host meetings in Las Cruces
On Thursday, December 8th, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will travel to the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico along with newly appointed BIA Director Bruce Loudermilk and BIE Director Tony Dearman to tour the recent land into trust acquisition and meet with students at the Pueblo's Sky City School.
On Friday, December 9th, Secretary Jewell will join community members in Las Cruces, NM to celebrate the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, designated by President Obama in 2014 as part of BLM's National Conservation Lands. She will then host a round table with business and community leaders to discuss the economic benefits that healthy and protected public lands provide to local communities, as well as the ongoing work to expand access to the outdoors for diverse communities.
On Friday, December 9th, Secretary Jewell will join community members in Las Cruces, NM to celebrate the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, designated by President Obama in 2014 as part of BLM's National Conservation Lands. She will then host a round table with business and community leaders to discuss the economic benefits that healthy and protected public lands provide to local communities, as well as the ongoing work to expand access to the outdoors for diverse communities.
Why the win at Standing Rock reinforces the need for Indigenous consultation
The concept that governments have an obligation to consult Indigenous peoples takes different forms in national and international scholarship and law. It is expressed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which the Obama administration considers not to be legally binding but to carry “both moral and political force.”
In Canada, there is already a constitutionally-required duty to consult and accommodate, but Indigenous leaders hope that the Canadian government’s recent embrace of UNDRIP will provide greater protections.
The protests at Standing Rock have added new urgency to UNDRIP implementation in the United States and in Canada. If the declaration had been in place earlier, it may have prevented the protests from starting in the first place.
UNDRIP requires meaningful consultation with, and consent by, Indigenous peoples. Article 32 of UNDRIP says that states must consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources...more
Standing Rock Protesters Now Have an Unlikely Ally: Time
The fight over the Dakota Access
pipeline isn’t over. The Army Corps of Engineers gave protesters much
to cheer about yesterday when it announced it would seek ways to route
the last portion of the pipe around a reservoir the Standing Rock Sioux
depend on for drinking water. But the decision doesn’t guarantee
permanent protection for the tribe. The incoming Trump administration could try to undo the Army’s
decision once it takes office in January. Even if it doesn’t, the
company could complete the pipeline anyway without the appropriate
permits, deciding that the legal consequences are less costly than
failing to finish the project. If the Army fails to find viable
alternate routes, it could wind up granting the easement to go under the
Sioux’s drinking water anyway. Still, protesters appear to have at least one unlikely ally on their
side: bureaucracy. Historically, confrontations with the US government
have not ended well for native people. But in this uniquely 21st century
conflict, which pits the logistics of energy delivery in a fossil
fuel-dependent economy against movements for racial and environmental
justice, the system this time may be on the Sioux’s side. When it comes
to protecting land from development, gumming up the process through
lengthy studies, meetings, and public commenting periods often favors
the status quo. Thanks to the formidable bureaucratic obstacles erected
by the Army’s environmental review process, a completed Dakota Access
pipeline will likely remain a pipe dream at least through the winter...more
One tunnel instead of two for the Delta
Conflict over water allocations from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is
the most intractable water management problem in California. The sources of contention are many, but three interrelated issues
dominate the debate: whether to build two tunnels that divert water from
the Sacramento River, how much water to allocate to endangered fish
species, and what to do about the 1,100 miles of Delta levees that are
essential to the local economy. All of these issues need to be addressed to reduce unproductive conflict and litigation and resolve our water problems. Here
we outline a potential “grand compromise” for the Delta that meets the
co-equal goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem health
prescribed by the 2009 Delta Reform Act. To this end, California should:
▪ Build one tunnel, not two The most commonly stated fear about the twin tunnels is that they will increase exports and significantly harm the Delta. Project proponents have failed to convince opponents that proposed regulatory assurances on the tunnels’ use will actually protect water quality and species that are at risk. Building one tunnel with roughly half the proposed capacity caps the amount of water that can be taken from the Sacramento River and greatly reduces the project’s cost. Even at half of its proposed capacity, the project would significantly improve the reliability and quality of water supply. And by having two locations to draw water from the Delta – a new tunnel plus the existing south Delta pumps – the project creates the necessary flexibility to better manage the environment...more
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article119289748.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article119289748.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article119289748.html#storylink=cpy
▪ Build one tunnel, not two The most commonly stated fear about the twin tunnels is that they will increase exports and significantly harm the Delta. Project proponents have failed to convince opponents that proposed regulatory assurances on the tunnels’ use will actually protect water quality and species that are at risk. Building one tunnel with roughly half the proposed capacity caps the amount of water that can be taken from the Sacramento River and greatly reduces the project’s cost. Even at half of its proposed capacity, the project would significantly improve the reliability and quality of water supply. And by having two locations to draw water from the Delta – a new tunnel plus the existing south Delta pumps – the project creates the necessary flexibility to better manage the environment...more
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article119289748.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article119289748.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article119289748.html#storylink=cpy
Oregon standoff defendant Jason Patrick files motion to dismiss federal indictment
Jason Patrick, one of seven Oregon standoff defendants awaiting trial
in February, is urging the court to dismiss his indictment, arguing
that statements by federal officials expressing disappointment after the
acquittal of refuge occupier Ammon Bundy will taint his right to a fair
trial. Patrick, who has chosen to represent himself, filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss a charge that
accuses him of conspiring to prevent employees from the U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management from carrying out
their work through intimidation, threat or force. Patrick cited statements by Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy Williams, FBI Special Agent Greg Bretzing and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.
Williams, in a prepared statement, said prosecutors had hoped for a different outcome but respected the verdict. Bretzing, also in a prepared statement, said he was "extremely disappointed,'' but respected the role of the jury. Jewell posted in a Twitter message that she was "deeply disappointed.''
"Knowing full well that a second group of these defendants would soon be facing their own trial, the prosecution and its agents cavalierly made public statements disparaging the prior verdict. Their 'disappointment' is nothing less than a thinly veiled accusation that the first jury came, either through conscious desire or unfortunate mistake, to the incorrect conclusion,'' Patrick's motion said...more
Tribal leader: Pipeline opponents should go home
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault says it’s time for Dakota Access oil pipeline opponents to leave a camp along the pipeline route in southern North Dakota.
But many of the opponents who’ve been protesting for months are vowing to stay. They believe the four-state pipeline threatens tribal drinking water and cultural sites.
The Army has denied a permit for the pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in the area. Archambault says the protest camp’s purpose has been served and there’s no need for people to stay in dangerous winter weather.
Pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners could still prevail in federal court. Some opponents also fear President-elect Donald Trump could reverse the Army’s decision.
But Archambault doesn’t think there will be any developments for months...more
Inside a Michelin-Starred Chef's Controversial Quest to Turn Fighting Bulls Into Gourmet Food
...What happens after that? If Michelin-starred chef Mario Sandoval has his way, we'll eat the vanquished bull. To be more specific, the bull will become a luxury product, elevated to the same exalted status enjoyed by Spain's famous Iberian pigs. And it will be really, really good. Good for diners, good for the culture. Sandoval swears this up and down. Even if his detractors think his venture will only perpetuate a barbarous spectacle that's long past its prime... You can eat the bull. Some of the bull, anyway. The meat has long had a second life in Spain's food markets. Customers at Barcelona's historic Boqueria still remember the butcher who would set up a rolling cart in the entryway in the days after a bullfight, loaded up with various cuts of the deep-red flesh. King Ferdinand purportedly ate bull testicles to boost sexual prowess, and some folk legends hold that drinking the blood of the bull can ward off headaches and disease. There's even a rumor of a mystery woman who pulls up to the butchery area at Las Ventas in a car with tinted windows, drinks a single glass of blood, and disappears.
"When you eat the meat of the bull, you're eating a being," says Borja, who grew up watching the toros alongside his dad, also a bullfighting critic. "You're consuming its energy, its power, its emotions."
As a supporter, it's easy for Borja to wax romantic, but if you strip away the mystique of the corrida, the meat itself seems decidedly unappealing: lean, gamey and hard as stone until you marinate and stew it beyond recognition. Bred for bravery, fighting bulls live a longer and wilder life than cattle raised for meat. By the time they get to the plaza, they're older and far more muscled than their domesticated cousins, and the stress of fighting leaves the tissues fatigued and acidic. As one friend put it, the regimen "seems like the opposite of everything you're supposed to do to make meat good."...At 14, Sandoval got his first taste of fighting bull when the family attended a tienta, a sort of practice bullfight that gives toreros a chance to train while the ranchers evaluate the bulls' temperaments. "The rancher gave us some toro bravo stew to try," he remembers. "It tasted different: healthy, rich, with so much flavor. The rancher said, 'We eat this all the time.'"...more
New FDA regulations could cost farmers more time and money
Some changes from the Food and Drug Administration could it mean higher bills for livestock owners and more steps when it comes to buying medicine for their animals.
The new rules mainly impact medicated feed. Currently, you can buy it over-the-counter, but after the first of the year you'll need a veterinarian's permission, costing farmers more time and more money.
"It's going to be an awful burden on the farmers and ranchers," Farmer Dick Essick said.
When it comes to caring for livestock, farmers like Essick say when you need medicine, you often need it quickly.
"You could lose animals like that if you're running around trying to get a permit or something to buy some medicine or feed for them, you know," Essick said.
However, new rules set by the FDA will require livestock owners to get either a veterinary feed directive or, in some cases, a prescription before buying products like medicated feed, medicated feed additives, and water soluble antibiotics.
"Here's an example of a medicated feed that's going to be restricted after January 1st because it contains the product of chlortetracycline," Customer Service Specialist in the Agricultural Division at Nixa Hardware Joe Tummons said.
It's something that will not only cost farmers more time but also more money.
"You're going to have to have a vet call. We keep track of things here, so there's more time added so product pricing could go up," Tummons said.
Tummons says starting January 1, the store will be ready for the changes...more
The Dodge City Gang of Las Vegas, NM
Las Vegas, NM Hanging Windmill |
In the summer of 1879, a gang of
desperados known as the Dodge City Gang made their first appearance in Las Vegas, New Mexico. As the first Santa
Fe trains steamed into the territory that summer, it brought with it
a whole host of gamblers, ruffians and unsavory characters.
Before long, a group formed called the "Dodge City
Gang,” since so many of them had earned reputations for violent behavior in the
western cow towns of Kansas.
The Dodge City Gang was firmly in
control of a criminal cartel bent on thumbing their noses at the law. For the
next two years, the Dodge City Gang participated in several stage coach and
train robberies, organized cattle rustling, and were said to have been
responsible for multiple murders and lynchings.
Two stage robberies in August of 1879, and one train robbery
in October occurred in the Las Vegas, New Mexico area. Many suspected that the perpetrators were
members of the Dodge City Gang.
On August 18, 1879 a Barlow & Sanderson stagecoach was
robbed by three men near the village of Tecolote, New Mexico . John Clancy, Jim Dunagan, and Antonio Lopez were
arrested for the robbery, however they were not convicted.
Just a few weeks later on August 30, 1879, another Barlow
and Sanderson stagecoach was held up. "Frank" Cady, "Slap Jack
Bill", "Bull Shit Jack", and Jordan L. Webb, all with ties to
the Dodge City Gang, were arrested and charged with the second holdup. However,
they too, escaped conviction. Dave Rudabaugh would later confess to this crime
in cahoots with Las Vegas Marshal Joe Carson and a man named Joseph
Martin.
‘Tree hugger’ has burning passion for forest health
Have You Ever Heard The Term ‘Piss Poor?’ I Had No Idea It Comes From THIS!
We can learn a lot about ourselves by looking to the past. History not only provides us with a nostalgic glimpse at how things used to be — like with these classic childhood toys — but its lessons can still teach us things today.Many of us fondly refer to “the good old days” when times were purer and life was simpler. They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot. Once a day it was taken and sold to the tannery.
If you had to do this to survive, you were “piss poor.” But worse than that were the really poor folks who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot. They “didn’t have a pot to piss in” and were considered the lowest of the low. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.
The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children. Last of all the babies.
By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!” Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”...more
Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1745
We've had a request for some Jody Nix. From his 1988 CD The Key's In The Mailbox here is Nothing Quite Like Texas (On A Saturday Night).
https://youtu.be/CqYtT4NZEVQ
https://youtu.be/CqYtT4NZEVQ
Monday, December 05, 2016
Senator blasts GOP push for California drought language in water bill
Outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer is slamming a push by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to attach California drought language to a waterways bill, calling the provision a “poison pill.”
Boxer, a California Democrat, said the inclusion of the drought language would jeopardize bipartisan efforts to finalize the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which McCarthy said would be posted on Monday.
The underlying legislation authorizes dozens of water-related infrastructure projects around the country and is expected to include emergency funding for the lead-contaminated community of Flint, Mich.
“I was stunned to see comments made by Kevin McCarthy that the outrageous poison pill that he is trying to place on WRDA is ‘a little small agreement’ on California drought,” Boxer said in a statement. “I will use every tool at my disposal to stop this last minute poison pill rider.”
McCarthy and other California Republicans have been pushing to divert more water to the drought-stricken areas in central and southern California.
Critics like Boxer worry the proposed move would harm fish, reduce fishery jobs, roll back the Endangered Species Act and remove Congress’s authority to approve new dams.
McCarthy said the drought language “will bring more water to our communities and supports critical storage projects,” while also providing resources for Democratic drought priorities like conservation, efficiency and recycling efforts...more
Opponents seek to tie up Dakota pipeline for years
The coalition of groups that opposed the Dakota Access pipeline are looking to tie up its fate for months or even years if President-elect Donald Trump seeks to undo the Obama administration’s decision Sunday to withhold an easement for its construction.
Tribal groups and environmental activists cheered the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to reject a construction permit for the pipeline’s route across the Missouri River and instead conduct an environmental impact assessment of the project.
It represented a huge victory for protesters who had set up a large and growing camp near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, but they separately signaled they are digging in for a longer fight.
An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) could take years to execute, meaning the move would delay the pipeline indefinitely.
And while Trump could move to undo the EIS, groups opposed to the pipeline said this would trigger a legal fight that could tie up the project on its own.
Jan Hasselman, an Earthjustice lawyer who represents Standing Rock in its lawsuit against the project, said any Trump move is “subject to judicial review” and that the tribe is planning to sue...more
The Battle for The Bears Ears, Part I: The Legislative Landscape
On a clear day, the Bears Ears offer nothing but peace. The twin buttes stand eerily silent in the thin air, rippled only by a whispering breeze or the cries of a lazy raven riding an updraft. A vast landscape of desert wilderness stretches out below, empty of human presence. On a clear day, the Bears Ears offer nothing but peace. The twin buttes stand eerily silent in the thin air, rippled only by a whispering breeze or the cries of a lazy raven riding an updraft. A vast landscape of desert wilderness stretches out below, empty of human presence. On the other side stand an array of conservative forces, including most local residents. To them any federal action would amount to a massive land grab: an attempt to seal off the countryside from a range of beneficial uses. In a state where 67% of the land is already owned by the federal government, new “protection” means the loss of freedom, economic opportunity, and a way of life that has sustained their community for generations. The heart of the proposed monument is
Cedar Mesa: a 1,000-square-mile plateau incised by Grand Gulch and its
tributary canyons as they wind their way to the narrow gorge of the San
Juan River, 3,000 feet below. Archaeologist Nels C. Nelson visited the
mesa in 1920 and described it as “One of the least frequented and… most
inaccessible parts of the United States.” He would still recognize it
today. The Hole-in-the-Rock Mormons settled
on Cedar Mesa’s eastern flank, establishing the isolated towns of Bluff
and Montezuma Creek. Their lives on the frontier were demanding and
unforgiving. Paid work was scarce and unreliable in the cash-poor
economy. Ranching and farming were difficult and unpredictable in the
arid, high-desert environment, where temperatures could soar into the
100s in summer yet drop below freezing for weeks in the winter. Mining
was dangerous and brutal. But the settlers soon made a valuable
discovery: the canyons were rife with ancient rock art, ruins, and
artifacts, left behind by the people they called the Cliff Dwellers...more
National monument fight comes to Cascade-Siskiyou in southern Oregon
Southern Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou is an unlikely place to fight over a national monument. It is, after all, already a national monument. But since ecologists recommended a massive 65,000-acre expansion
- in effect doubling the size of the federal monument
- Cascade-Siskiyou has quietly become an important battleground in the
nationwide debate over federal lands. Environmentalists and scientists say further protection is necessary
to protect a vulnerable ecosystem from development and climate change.
Local ranchers and loggers contend that the land is rich with natural
resources necessary to keep their local economies afloat. Both sides
vehemently disagree with how the land should be managed. Sound familiar? It should. The battle is more than a century old in the Pacific Northwest, even
older than the 1906 Antiquities Act that gave sitting presidents the
power to declare national monuments in the first place. President Barack
Obama has already declared more monuments than any other president, and as his final term in office winds down, many anxiously await any further designations. There are dozens of potential monument sites across the country, but
all indicators give the Cascade-Siskiyou expansion a better shot than
most: It has support from both Oregon senators, attention from the U.S.
Department of the Interior and is far less of a political grenade than,
say, Bears Ears or the Owyhee Canyonlands, which have drawn intense scrutiny nationwide. It would be a huge win for environmentalists in the Pacific
Northwest, but the ranchers and loggers - whose livelihoods stand to be
most affected - don't see it that way...more
ISO gets into the animal welfare business
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
HT: BEEF
Introduction
There is a
growing focus in society on animal welfare. Perception of animal
welfare is complex and multifaceted, being influenced by scientific,
ethical, historical, cultural, religious, economic and political
dimensions. When addressing animal welfare, it has to be done in a
scientifically credible manner. The Terrestrial Animal Health Code
(TAHC) published by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) sets
animal welfare standards to be used to establish national regulations
and other relevant animal welfare documents.
Animal welfare management, as described in this document, has been developed to be adapted to various situations, including:
- — different production systems and different organizations in the supply chain for products of animal origin, regardless of size and country;
- — different geographical, cultural and religious contexts; and
- — developed as well as developing countries.
The
purpose of this document is to ensure the welfare of animals raised for
food or feed production around the world through the following
objectives:
- — to provide a management tool for the implementation of the animal welfare principles of the OIE TAHC (Section 7);
- — to provide guidance for the implementation of public or private animal welfare standards and relevant legislation that meet at least the OIE TAHC (Section 7);
- — to facilitate the integration of animal welfare principles in business-to-business relations.
Yellowstone plans to thin bison herd by 900 animals
Yellowstone National Park plans to reduce its famed bison herd by at least 900 ahead of this winter, culling stray animals outside the park in Montana by hunting and a program to round up and deliver wayward stock to Native American tribes for slaughter.
The annual culling, if it goes as planned, would mark one of the largest thinnings of the Yellowstone herd during the past decade. The park's bison numbers have swelled to some 5,500 animals, well above the target population of roughly 3,000.
Animals that roam out of the park into adjacent state lands in Montana will be subject to harvest by licensed sportsmen and Native American tribes exercising historic hunting rights. But the majority will be captured live, then turned over to tribes to be slaughtered for meat...more
At 46 Years, EPA Will See Huge Changes Under Trump
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began operating 46 years
ago after former President Richard Nixon proposed it as a way to address
mounting pollution concerns across the country.
EPA celebrated its 46th anniversary Friday, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump likely takes the agency in a totally different direction compared to the last eight years under President Barack Obama, focusing on clean air and quality instead of global warming. Not only is Trump looking to roll back Obama-era regulations, the incoming administration reportedly has plans to fundamentally reform major decades-old environmental laws: The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. No doubt, Trump will work to repeal the “waters of the United States” rule and the Clean Power Plan rule for power plants. But his handlers suggested the new administration would work with Congress to pursue major legislative changes to stop regulatory overreach...more
EPA celebrated its 46th anniversary Friday, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump likely takes the agency in a totally different direction compared to the last eight years under President Barack Obama, focusing on clean air and quality instead of global warming. Not only is Trump looking to roll back Obama-era regulations, the incoming administration reportedly has plans to fundamentally reform major decades-old environmental laws: The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. No doubt, Trump will work to repeal the “waters of the United States” rule and the Clean Power Plan rule for power plants. But his handlers suggested the new administration would work with Congress to pursue major legislative changes to stop regulatory overreach...more
Connelly: A Different Opinion On Protecting Wolves
By Michele Connelly
...The blatant disregard for any life but the glorious wolf is what has produced the lack of success this program is plagued with. The original poor wolf story in this series had a comment about wolves killing “the occasional cow” and blaming this on ranchers unwilling to try new techniques to protect their herds. Well, let’s see. The much vaunted red electric fencing tape costs $8,000/mile and has the wallop of a tickle to a child’s hand. A friend’s neighbor’s tot loved to play with it. Then there are range riders, who unfortunately can’t ride at night, when most of the attacks happen. The newest claim by the pro wolf livestock experts is that because only 2% of cow deaths are from wolves that it’s not a problem. Try telling that “occasional cow” story to the NM rancher who lost 13 cows in one year to wolves. It’s this bending of facts, using a national statistic that includes cows in stockyards and all over wolfless cattle country as though it applies here, that delegitimizes the program. How much of that rancher’s time will be spent trying to verify wolf kills and getting reimbursed, replacing cows used to the country with ones who aren’t? What happens to his/her bottom line when the calves all have low birth weights due to stress from the mothers being stalked, if not attacked?
...It’s always surprised me that the news organization for a land grant university with a such a strong agricultural college publishes this one sided nonsense. God loves cow families too. Where is the concern for the cattle attacked and eaten alive, and their pain? Nope, it’s only the poor wolf. If you actually wrote articles providing both sides of this issue, now that would truly be a service.
...The blatant disregard for any life but the glorious wolf is what has produced the lack of success this program is plagued with. The original poor wolf story in this series had a comment about wolves killing “the occasional cow” and blaming this on ranchers unwilling to try new techniques to protect their herds. Well, let’s see. The much vaunted red electric fencing tape costs $8,000/mile and has the wallop of a tickle to a child’s hand. A friend’s neighbor’s tot loved to play with it. Then there are range riders, who unfortunately can’t ride at night, when most of the attacks happen. The newest claim by the pro wolf livestock experts is that because only 2% of cow deaths are from wolves that it’s not a problem. Try telling that “occasional cow” story to the NM rancher who lost 13 cows in one year to wolves. It’s this bending of facts, using a national statistic that includes cows in stockyards and all over wolfless cattle country as though it applies here, that delegitimizes the program. How much of that rancher’s time will be spent trying to verify wolf kills and getting reimbursed, replacing cows used to the country with ones who aren’t? What happens to his/her bottom line when the calves all have low birth weights due to stress from the mothers being stalked, if not attacked?
...It’s always surprised me that the news organization for a land grant university with a such a strong agricultural college publishes this one sided nonsense. God loves cow families too. Where is the concern for the cattle attacked and eaten alive, and their pain? Nope, it’s only the poor wolf. If you actually wrote articles providing both sides of this issue, now that would truly be a service.
Donald Trump meets with Al Gore on climate change
President-elect Donald Trump met on Monday with Al Gore -- one of the most vocal advocates of fighting climate change.
Before the meeting, Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters on a daily briefing call that Gore would meet with Ivanka Trump, the President-elect's daughter, about climate issues, but he did not know what specifically was on the agenda. He had also said the former Democratic vice president would not meet with Trump himself.
But Gore told reporters after the meeting that he met with Trump himself after seeing Ivanka.
"I had a lengthy and very productive session with the President-elect," Gore said, according to the pool report. "It was a sincere search for areas of common ground. I had a meeting beforehand with Ivanka Trump. The bulk of the time was with the President-elect, Donald Trump. I found it an extremely interesting conversation, and to be continued, and I'm just going to leave it at that."...more
Letter - Key to Owyhee protection is trust
It is a great sadness to me that
many in the ranching community have organized for the purpose of
preventing protections for the great Owyhee Canyonlands in Oregon, and
have voted “unanimously” to take the “no negotiations” position.
Andrew Bentz, who heads the Owyhee
Basin Stewardship coalition, indicated that the group’s greatest concern
is access to grazing, despite the fact that existing grazing rights are
grandfathered in to any creation of an Owyhee National Monument as well
as the Wilderness Act of 1964. They simply do not trust that these laws
will be upheld. Period.
How do you work through these issues if you build a wall against communication? When trust is nonexistent?...more
existing grazing rights are grandfathered in to any creation of an Owyhee National Monument
as well as the Wilderness Act of 1964. They simply do not trust that these laws will be upheld.
With respect to National Monuments the law in question is the Antiquities Act of 1906. That is the law that authorizes the President to proclaim National Monuments. Please read it. Not only is livestock grazing not "grandfathered in", it is not even mentioned in the Act. There may be draft proclamations being floated around by local advocates, but the final authority rests with the President on whether or not livestock grazing may occur within the monument, and if so under what restrictions. It is all dependent on what grazing language the President chooses to insert in the proclamation, and that language has varied widely. Presidential proclamations have banned livestock grazing entirely, have banned grazing in certain areas of a monument, have allowed grazing but with restrictions, and have stated specifically the designation will have no impact on grazing. One person, the President, makes this decision, with no public hearings, no NEPA compliance, no "collaboration."
We have been through all this in a nine-year battle resulting in the designation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument and that is the sad reality facing ranch families in other proposed monuments.
USDA Forecasts Farm Income To Sink To Seven-Year Low
Profit from U.S. farms will sink to its lowest point since 2009 this year if Agriculture Department predictions are correct. U.S.
net farm income is expected to drop for the third-straight year in
2016, dropping 17.2 percent from the 2015 estimate to $66.9 billion,
according to projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture released on Wednesday. The livestock sector is expected to be particularly hard hit. “Nearly
all major animal specialties—including dairy, meat animals, and
poultry/eggs—are forecast to have lower receipts,” the USDA said in a
release. USDA economists forecast cattle and calf receipts to drop nearly 15 percent from last year’s estimate to $11.6 billion...more
Transition official: Trump will not rip up NAFTA
Members of the Donald Trump transition team are trying to tamp down concerns among corporate leaders that the incoming administration may spark trade wars with Mexico, Canada and other major trading partners over the next four years.
Anthony Scaramucci, a senior adviser on the Trump transition team, told a group of business leaders convened at a bipartisan meeting by the group No Labels that President-elect Trump is a free-trader who is looking to make trade deals more fair, not scrap them.
“I don’t think we’re looking to rip up NAFTA as much as we are looking to right-size it and make it fairer,” he added. “He’s got a great relationship, by the way, with the Mexican president. They talk regularly,” referring to Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Scaramucci said his homework on Trump’s economic team has been to study the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump called “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere” during the presidential campaign...more
County settles suit over traffic stop by cross-commissioned officer
Santa Fe County has agreed to pay $75,000 to a man who claims a Pojoaque Pueblo police officer assaulted him after a traffic stop seven years ago. Tribal Officer Glen Gutierrez was acting under authority of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office when he pulled over Jose Luis Loya of El Paso on a claim that the motorist was driving recklessly.
The settlement, reached last month, is the final installment in a yearslong dispute over which government agency is legally responsible when officers from other jurisdictions who are cross-commissioned by the sheriff are sued. Santa Fe County since then has discontinued the practice of cross-commissioning officers unless the partner agency agrees to accept liability for its own officers...But in May 2015, the state Supreme Court ruled that the previous judges had gotten it wrong and that Santa Fe County was responsible for defending Gutierrez.
“Officer Gutierrez was acting in an official capacity as a duly-sworn sheriff’s deputy; he could not have legally arrested Loya, a non-Indian, any other way,” Justice Richard Bosson wrote in the opinion. “When Officer Gutierrez made the arrest he was acting on behalf of the county, not the pueblo.”
Bosson also wrote that the sheriff’s office had the power to set requirements for cross-commissioned officers but hadn’t done so.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office revoked commission agreements it had with more than a dozen agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, the Española Police Department and the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office...more
You can read the opinion by going here.
You can read the opinion by going here.
Ranch Radio Song of the Day #1744
Its Swingin' Monday on Ranch Radio and we bring you Tommy Hooker - Somewhere South of San Antone. The tune is on his 2009 CD Blue Smoke.
https://youtu.be/rNiCBLx_KEo
https://youtu.be/rNiCBLx_KEo
Sunday, December 04, 2016
Farmers push back against animal welfare laws
WASHINGTON — All hogs in Massachusetts will be able to stretch their legs and turn around in their crates and all hens will be able to spread their wings under a law passed in November by voters in the state.
Laws like this one, which strictly regulate how farm animals are confined, are becoming more common across the U.S., as large-scale farming replaces family farms and consumers learn more about what happens behind barn doors. Massachusetts is the 12th state to ban the use of some livestock- and poultry-raising cages or crates, such as gestation crates for sows, veal crates for calves or battery cages for chickens, which critics say abusively restrict the animals’ movement.
The restrictive laws have taken hold so far in states that have relatively small agriculture industries for animals and animal products and fewer large-scale farming operations. But producers in big farming states see the writing on the wall. Backed by state farm bureaus, large-scale industrial farmers are pushing for changes that would make it harder for states to further regulate the way they do business.
North Dakota and Missouri adopted amendments in the last few years that enshrined into their constitutions the right of farmers and ranchers to use current practices and technology. Legislatures in many states, including Indiana, Mississippi, Nebraska and West Virginia, considered proposed amendments this year. And Oklahoma voters rejected a similar amendment sent to them by the Legislature in November.
Farmers acknowledge that some people who do not spend much time on farms may object to some of their practices. But they say that they do not abuse animals and that their practices are the most efficient and safest way to keep up with demand for food. And, they say, complying with restrictions on raising poultry and livestock like those approved in Massachusetts are costly for them and for consumers.
They point to an 18 percent increase in the price of eggs — about 49 cents a dozen — in California last year that was attributed to a law that created strict space requirements for hens. The law applies not just to producers in the state but to producers in other states that sell eggs there...more
Feds halt construction, deny final permits for Dakota Access pipeline
Federal officials have denied the final permits required for the Dakota Access Pipeline project in North Dakota.
The Army Corps of Engineers announced Sunday it would instead conduct an environmental impact review of the 1,170-mile pipeline project to determine if there are other ways to route the pipeline to avoid a crossing on the Missouri River.
“Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more work to do,” Army Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said in a statement.
“The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing.”
The decision comes after months of protests against the proposed project. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe objects to the pipeline, warning that it threatens its drinking water supply...more
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy
Words on the pages
by Julie Carter
Reading for pleasure is a mode of transportation that is
fast going the way of the horse and buggy. There are but a few of us around
that still find it to be the most preferable entertainment.
“Whatever it was Lucy
longed for, whatever was whispered by the wind and written in the mystery of
the waste of sage and stone, she wanted it to happen there at Bostil’s Ford.
The desert and her life seem as one, yet in what did they resemble each other
-- in what of this scene could she read the nature of her future.”
This particular Zane Grey classic novel was a bestseller in
1917 and has been in demand ever since. The timeless story of Wildfire, a
magnificent temperamental stallion with fierce speed, is a story set in a West
that framed the imaginations of youth and adults alike.
Everyone wanted to claim this untamable horse and was
willing to do the unthinkable to capture him. This gave the plot all the
elements of evil, villains and heroes that made the story powerful, exciting
and one of Grey's masterpieces.
As I raced through the mountain meadows of my childhood home
aboard the “Wildfire” of my life, I could be Lucy
in the middle of some imagined adventure. I could be lost in the mountains,
surrounded by nature’s splendor with only my horse for a hero.
These journeys into a world created by my mind were part
reality, part day dreams. They were nurtured by the summers that seemed to go
on forever, filled with hours upon hours of reading.
Books – the medium that took me away from the remoteness and
isolation of my life as it blossomed into teen hood and I sought answers to my
destiny. And yet my preference in genre was that which fed into the life I
already lived.
I spent every hour with Flicka through all three volumes of
Mary O’Hara’s books. It was me “in” the book every time I picked it up to
devour more of the story.
Walter Farley’s bestselling “Black Stallion” series with the
magnificent horse and his young owner, Alec Ramsay, ramped up my imagination
and took me to places in the world I could only see through the words on the
pages.
And in reality, every horse I rode had the potential for
that adoring, loyal relationship. When I read the words, I felt the emotions,
heard the sounds, and recognized the smells of a sweating horse after a long
run or felt the soft blow of his breath as he snorted a greeting.
I don’t have any idea what it was like for a kid living in
the suburbs of a city or a fourth-floor apartment to read the same books that I
read. Perhaps his imagination allowed him the same escape to the West without
living in it, but I know mine came with a sharp visual that only reality could
enhance. I lived what others read about.
Today, when I read those kinds of stories, they return me to
those same settings where now my imagination meets memory.
The sun as it sets behind a red sandy bluff, the smell of a
juniper wood campfire, the sounds of a gurgling stream, the rustle of leaves in
a stand of Aspens – written in one world by the author, providing instant
mental transportation for me back to that place I once lived.
There, I can still hear the sounds of my horse picking his
way down a rocky trail, the sounds of iron shoes clacking against the rocks and
the creak of the leather in the saddle as it strains against the back muscles
of the animal beneath it.
Zane, Walter, Mary and I have a whole lot more in common
than I realized those many years ago and it all began with those words on the
pages and the West of my imagination.
Julie can be reached
for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com
As a youth you would usually find me with a Luke Short or Will Henry novel. If I couldn't find something by them then it was Ernest Haycox or Louis L'Amour. I didn't discover Elmer Kelton or Max Evans until later..
As a youth you would usually find me with a Luke Short or Will Henry novel. If I couldn't find something by them then it was Ernest Haycox or Louis L'Amour. I didn't discover Elmer Kelton or Max Evans until later..
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