Saturday, January 17, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Column: What Rules Are Needed to Keep the Wilderness Wild? The Wilderness Society, a strong critic of the unregulated use of off-road vehicles, says that the United States has at least 11 million of them and that 93 percent of the 262 million acres of Western land under the Bureau of Land Management is open to some form of off-road use. In Utah alone, the society says, 94 percent of the 22 million acres under the federal bureau's jurisdiction is open to vehicles ranging from dirt bikes to Jeeps. The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association says the United States has 130,000 miles of signed and maintained snowmobile trails. In places like the Florida Keys, where fragile reefs and fertile wetlands abound, water scooters are under increasing scrutiny for the damage they — or the access they provide — can cause. "Motorized recreation has outstripped the ability of agencies to manage it," said Rollin Sparrowe, president of the Wildlife Management Institute, whose members are professionals in the field. "And there's a whole new generation of people using the forest who have never used any other means of access but a machine."....Water sought to help Klamath River salmon Federal irrigation authorities are looking outside the Klamath Reclamation Project for farms and ranches willing to sell water to build up a water bank devoted to threatened salmon in the Klamath River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls is sending 300 applications to people interested in bidding on contracts to provide a total of 75,000 acre-feet of water, through wells or forgoing irrigation, said Gary Baker, special-projects officer for the bureau in Klamath Falls. The bureau is expanding the program it began last year to produce an extra 100,000 acre-feet of water for threatened coho in the Klamath River, as set by federal scientists under the Endangered Species Act. Most of the water will go to increasing springtime flows, when young salmon migrate to the ocean, said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken....Critics Say the Park Service Is Letting Religion and Politics Affect Its Policies To halt the removal of a cross placed in the Mojave National Preserve almost 70 years ago to commemorate World War I veterans, a Republican lawmaker from California has proposed swapping the land it sits on with a private group. The National Park Service recently ordered the return of plaques bearing biblical verses that had hung in Grand Canyon National Park for more than 30 years before they were taken down last summer. The Park Service also approved selling a book at the Grand Canyon that suggests the canyon was created in six days several thousand years ago. And here at the Lincoln Memorial, an eight-minute film that shows historical events at the memorial, including demonstrations for civil rights, abortion rights and gay rights, is being revised by the Park Service to add four minutes of more politically neutral events....Wyo seeks injunction on snowmobile phaseout The state has said it will appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia from a decision Dec. 16 by U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan of Washington rejecting a Bush administration plan to allow 1,350 snowmobiles a day in the parks and replacing it with the Clinton phaseout plan. "Next year, if we don't get anything done, we are facing a ban on snowmobiles," Jerde said. He said that in its appeal of the Sullivan decision, the state will ask for a change of venue to the 10th U.S. Circuit in Denver, which has jurisdiction over a snowmobile suit filed by the state in federal court in Wyoming. This suit, challenging the Clinton administration rules, was settled, but has been reopened by Brimmer at the state's request. "Our lawsuit was the first, and it's basically the same lawsuit," the assistant attorney general said. Besides, he said in response to questions of committee members, "We are more likely to get a ruling that we like out of the 10th Circuit than the D.C. circuit.".... Heliport plan concerns BLM Southwest Henderson residents aren't the only ones concerned about a plan to move sightseeing helicopters from McCarran International Airport to a new facility near Sloan. The federal Bureau of Land Management isn't crazy about the idea either, especially if it means low-altitude flights over the federally protected Sloan Canyon wilderness and its large collection of American Indian rock art....Editorial: Snowmobile firms can survive Snowmobile rental companies in West Yellowstone, Mont., say they're suffering economically, but their ire should be aimed at Bush administration officials who led them down the primrose path. The Bush team spent $2.4 million trying to ignore clear scientific evidence that recreational snowmobiles didn't belong in Yellowstone National Park. If the federal or Wyoming and Montana governments had spent a fraction of that sum promoting the many kinds of winter recreation available at towns surrounding the national park, the local economies would be thriving. Numerous studies have shown that snowmobiling harms Yellowstone's environment, so the Clinton administration planned to phase out the machines. The Bush administration nixed that plan on the pretext it needed more information. But the Bush administration's own studies confirmed what the Clinton-era research had found....Muddy Ridge lands ceded to feds century ago The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes are requesting that about 56,000 acres of excess federal lands within their Wind River Reservation be transferred back to the tribes as required by the federal excess property laws. In 1975, Congress enacted a law that states that excess federal land within a reservation shall be transferred in trust for the tribe. The act is not discretionary and was enacted to enhance economic benefits to the tribes. In 1976, as part of the new Federal Land Policy Management ACT (FLPMA) requirements, the BuRec began a review of withdrawn lands, including the acreage within Muddy Ridge, to determine the land's use and status. In 1990, the BuRec completed the review of the withdrawn lands in the Riverton Unit and identified approximately 56,296 acres of land surplus to the agency's needs within the unit....Artificial water holes awash in controversy Environmentalists are blocking a plan to improve artificial water holes that hunters and some biologists say are keeping bighorn sheep and other animals alive in the drought. In a fight being watched across the nation, sporting and green groups are locking horns in an age-old dispute: One side thinks big-game species need help from humans; the other describes water holes, often financed by hunters, as feel-good measures that are apt to do more harm than good....Judge dismisses fire suit Federal Judge Edward Shea on Friday dismissed a lawsuit asking for $108 million in damages caused when the 2000 Hanford wildfire swept off federal land. More than 100 parties sued the federal government, saying its fire prevention and firefighting efforts were lacking. But Shea found that the federal government had contracted out those services and could not be held legally responsible. Plaintiffs' attorneys had yet to meet with their clients Friday to discuss whether to appeal....Columbia oil spill stretches for 23 miles Oil containing a cancer-causing compound spilled from the transformer of a major dam into the Columbia River, killing fish and leaving a rainbow-hued streak 23 miles long. Officials were still uncertain Saturday how much oil had leaked from a frost-damaged transformer, but had set up a command center at The Dalles dam staffed by 50 local and state officials. Environmentalists are calling for an investigation, claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did too little after the spill was first noticed on Thursday, while understating the amount of oil that leaked....Elks' winter ports in a storm Pushed down from the high mountains by the cold and blizzards, hundreds of Rocky Mountain elk are gathering daily at feeding sites along the base of the craggy Elkhorn Mountains in Northeast Oregon. About 1,500 elk and 500 deer are munching alfalfa hay at 10 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sites. That's more than double the number of elk the agency fed last year. The remote feeding sites are scattered along a 45-mile line in the 1,200-acre Elkhorn Wildlife Management Area, Migez said. Fish and Wildlife began developing winter feeding sites in the early 1970s after nearly three decades of conflict with ranchers weary of elk raids on their haystacks. The 10 feeding sites have been in operation since 1984 or 1985, he said....Editorial: Yucca goes to court Making their case before a judicial panel convened at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Wednesday, attorneys for Nevada argued the state had been unfairly singled out for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository -- a plea which received a chilly reception, given that no one challenged Judge David Tatel's contention that the land is, in fact, "federal property." "This concerns the use of federal property in the state," said Judge Tatel. "When you are talking about federal property, it is not intuitive to consult the states." Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval had early on vowed an objection to that premise would be one of the tactics the state employed. So why did that premise apparently go unchallenged? An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is expected, regardless of Wednesday's result. But the opportunity to introduce a stronger case for Nevada's sovereignty over her own lands may just have gone a-glimmering....Column: Methane industry should listen to farmers Caskey and other out-of-state methane executives seem to think safeguards for our clean irrigation water and valuable aquifers are obstacles to development. They consider filling out the right paperwork a “hoop” and “hurdle,” but they only do that after they’ve been sued. For farmers, ranchers and others who rely on that same water for irrigation, stock and our homes, those safeguards are the key to making sure we can pass on our operations to our kids and grandkids. Legal opinion supports GF&P's private access policy A legal opinion from the state attorney general supports current practice of state conservation officers to enter private land without permission to check hunters and enforce wildlife laws. In an official opinion released Thursday, Attorney General Larry Long said conservation officers are not guilty of trespassing, nor do they violate constitutional provisions against "unreasonable searches and seizures," even though they enter the land without permission, a warrant or reasonable suspicion of a crime. The dispute over property rights surfaced in Harding County last fall when a rancher signed a trespass complaint against a GF&P officer. Long's office still hasn't determined whether to charge the conservation officer. Long's opinion likely strengthens the resolve of legislators and landowners who will push the Legislature to restrict GF&P authority....Rustlers may ride again on the Colorado plains Since the 1860s, when Colorado cattle baron John Iliff discovered it was more profitable selling beef to gold miners than panning for flakes himself, stockmen have been converting golden prairie grass into cash. Along with that movement came unscrupulous cowboys who sought shortcuts to riches and stole cattle grazing on the vast eastern range. Cattle theft can be more lucrative than burglary, and few thieves are ever caught. A house thief can get only a fraction of the value of a stolen television set at a pawn shop, but a cattle thief can get top market value for a calf, a mother cow or a bull at an auction barn, Gray said....Ranch horses compete on first day of Fort Worth livestock event Traditional horse events at the stock show feature animals specifically bred for show. Not the case for the ranching-horse competition, which premiered two years ago. "This type of event is very much geared toward ranching horses," said Bruce McCarty, horse show manager for the stock show. "These horses, they're not pampered very much. They work every day." Mr. McCarty said the Fort Worth stock show was one of the first in the nation to present such an event, and it has quickly become one of its most well-attended competitions. It's also one of the most difficult to enter. The event, which lasted more than six hours, requires too much time to allow more than 15 contestants. James Gholson of Guthrie, Okla., won the competition riding Pay One, who will be sold at the stock show today.... Life as a young cowgirl By age 12 Rosalee Barnhart Shirley was a real cowgirl. She could saddle her own horse, and for two fall seasons in the 1930s, a Dexter family paid her to herd cattle on their ranch. The year was 1935 when Shirley wrangled her first herd. Paying jobs were slim for a young girl. Shirley, now 81, jumped at the opportunity. In the 1930s ranchers hauled their livestock to market on boxcars, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad ran through the center of Dexter. Another year Shirley helped lead the cattle from the ranch to the railroad’s loading docks, just past Dexter’s old depot.... They rub horses the right way Equine massage therapists Jeanell Evans and Rebecca Wyatt rub away the aches and pains of their hoofed clients, but the treatments also benefit horse owners. Evans, 50, and Wyatt, 32, long-time family friends and Northwest Side residents, are certified equine message therapists, though both have other full-time jobs. Evans is a physical therapy technician and Wyatt is a veterinary technician. When treating a horse, Evans runs her hands over the animal looking for indentations, swelling, knots, tightness or tender spots that indicate problem areas. She applies between 3 and 8 pounds of pressure to the point to relieve the muscle stress. "We just use a light amount of pressure," Evans said. "It's not how much pressure you can put, it's where you put it. You don't use strength. You use knowledge." As part of treatment, the women stretch the animals' legs, and massage their gums too....Hollywood to break last taboo with gay cowboys Heath Ledger, star of A Knight's Tale, and Jake Gyllenhaal, best known from the arthouse hit Donnie Darko, are lined up to play star-crossed lovers in director Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, a frank portrayal of physical and emotional bonds between men. It is a story of two cowboys who spend a summer on the range in 1963. Under the open skies of Wyoming, the pair fall into a tempestuous love affair and forge a relationship that lasts the rest of their lives. Though major Hollywood stars such as Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas have played gay roles in the past, none has done so with such frank intimacy....Permissive society can have bite to it One of my favorite places to hunt squirrels for years was owned by an elderly gentleman who lived alone. I wouldn't say he talked a lot but he definitely didn't believe in letting silence hang in the air too long. His sentences were not limited by the normal laws of grammar but by the movement of the sun and moon. He wouldn't have known a period if it hit him in the face. His run-on sentences began at dawn and ended some time after he went to sleep....
Permalink
Column: What Rules Are Needed to Keep the Wilderness Wild? The Wilderness Society, a strong critic of the unregulated use of off-road vehicles, says that the United States has at least 11 million of them and that 93 percent of the 262 million acres of Western land under the Bureau of Land Management is open to some form of off-road use. In Utah alone, the society says, 94 percent of the 22 million acres under the federal bureau's jurisdiction is open to vehicles ranging from dirt bikes to Jeeps. The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association says the United States has 130,000 miles of signed and maintained snowmobile trails. In places like the Florida Keys, where fragile reefs and fertile wetlands abound, water scooters are under increasing scrutiny for the damage they — or the access they provide — can cause. "Motorized recreation has outstripped the ability of agencies to manage it," said Rollin Sparrowe, president of the Wildlife Management Institute, whose members are professionals in the field. "And there's a whole new generation of people using the forest who have never used any other means of access but a machine."....Water sought to help Klamath River salmon Federal irrigation authorities are looking outside the Klamath Reclamation Project for farms and ranches willing to sell water to build up a water bank devoted to threatened salmon in the Klamath River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls is sending 300 applications to people interested in bidding on contracts to provide a total of 75,000 acre-feet of water, through wells or forgoing irrigation, said Gary Baker, special-projects officer for the bureau in Klamath Falls. The bureau is expanding the program it began last year to produce an extra 100,000 acre-feet of water for threatened coho in the Klamath River, as set by federal scientists under the Endangered Species Act. Most of the water will go to increasing springtime flows, when young salmon migrate to the ocean, said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken....Critics Say the Park Service Is Letting Religion and Politics Affect Its Policies To halt the removal of a cross placed in the Mojave National Preserve almost 70 years ago to commemorate World War I veterans, a Republican lawmaker from California has proposed swapping the land it sits on with a private group. The National Park Service recently ordered the return of plaques bearing biblical verses that had hung in Grand Canyon National Park for more than 30 years before they were taken down last summer. The Park Service also approved selling a book at the Grand Canyon that suggests the canyon was created in six days several thousand years ago. And here at the Lincoln Memorial, an eight-minute film that shows historical events at the memorial, including demonstrations for civil rights, abortion rights and gay rights, is being revised by the Park Service to add four minutes of more politically neutral events....Wyo seeks injunction on snowmobile phaseout The state has said it will appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia from a decision Dec. 16 by U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan of Washington rejecting a Bush administration plan to allow 1,350 snowmobiles a day in the parks and replacing it with the Clinton phaseout plan. "Next year, if we don't get anything done, we are facing a ban on snowmobiles," Jerde said. He said that in its appeal of the Sullivan decision, the state will ask for a change of venue to the 10th U.S. Circuit in Denver, which has jurisdiction over a snowmobile suit filed by the state in federal court in Wyoming. This suit, challenging the Clinton administration rules, was settled, but has been reopened by Brimmer at the state's request. "Our lawsuit was the first, and it's basically the same lawsuit," the assistant attorney general said. Besides, he said in response to questions of committee members, "We are more likely to get a ruling that we like out of the 10th Circuit than the D.C. circuit.".... Heliport plan concerns BLM Southwest Henderson residents aren't the only ones concerned about a plan to move sightseeing helicopters from McCarran International Airport to a new facility near Sloan. The federal Bureau of Land Management isn't crazy about the idea either, especially if it means low-altitude flights over the federally protected Sloan Canyon wilderness and its large collection of American Indian rock art....Editorial: Snowmobile firms can survive Snowmobile rental companies in West Yellowstone, Mont., say they're suffering economically, but their ire should be aimed at Bush administration officials who led them down the primrose path. The Bush team spent $2.4 million trying to ignore clear scientific evidence that recreational snowmobiles didn't belong in Yellowstone National Park. If the federal or Wyoming and Montana governments had spent a fraction of that sum promoting the many kinds of winter recreation available at towns surrounding the national park, the local economies would be thriving. Numerous studies have shown that snowmobiling harms Yellowstone's environment, so the Clinton administration planned to phase out the machines. The Bush administration nixed that plan on the pretext it needed more information. But the Bush administration's own studies confirmed what the Clinton-era research had found....Muddy Ridge lands ceded to feds century ago The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes are requesting that about 56,000 acres of excess federal lands within their Wind River Reservation be transferred back to the tribes as required by the federal excess property laws. In 1975, Congress enacted a law that states that excess federal land within a reservation shall be transferred in trust for the tribe. The act is not discretionary and was enacted to enhance economic benefits to the tribes. In 1976, as part of the new Federal Land Policy Management ACT (FLPMA) requirements, the BuRec began a review of withdrawn lands, including the acreage within Muddy Ridge, to determine the land's use and status. In 1990, the BuRec completed the review of the withdrawn lands in the Riverton Unit and identified approximately 56,296 acres of land surplus to the agency's needs within the unit....Artificial water holes awash in controversy Environmentalists are blocking a plan to improve artificial water holes that hunters and some biologists say are keeping bighorn sheep and other animals alive in the drought. In a fight being watched across the nation, sporting and green groups are locking horns in an age-old dispute: One side thinks big-game species need help from humans; the other describes water holes, often financed by hunters, as feel-good measures that are apt to do more harm than good....Judge dismisses fire suit Federal Judge Edward Shea on Friday dismissed a lawsuit asking for $108 million in damages caused when the 2000 Hanford wildfire swept off federal land. More than 100 parties sued the federal government, saying its fire prevention and firefighting efforts were lacking. But Shea found that the federal government had contracted out those services and could not be held legally responsible. Plaintiffs' attorneys had yet to meet with their clients Friday to discuss whether to appeal....Columbia oil spill stretches for 23 miles Oil containing a cancer-causing compound spilled from the transformer of a major dam into the Columbia River, killing fish and leaving a rainbow-hued streak 23 miles long. Officials were still uncertain Saturday how much oil had leaked from a frost-damaged transformer, but had set up a command center at The Dalles dam staffed by 50 local and state officials. Environmentalists are calling for an investigation, claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did too little after the spill was first noticed on Thursday, while understating the amount of oil that leaked....Elks' winter ports in a storm Pushed down from the high mountains by the cold and blizzards, hundreds of Rocky Mountain elk are gathering daily at feeding sites along the base of the craggy Elkhorn Mountains in Northeast Oregon. About 1,500 elk and 500 deer are munching alfalfa hay at 10 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sites. That's more than double the number of elk the agency fed last year. The remote feeding sites are scattered along a 45-mile line in the 1,200-acre Elkhorn Wildlife Management Area, Migez said. Fish and Wildlife began developing winter feeding sites in the early 1970s after nearly three decades of conflict with ranchers weary of elk raids on their haystacks. The 10 feeding sites have been in operation since 1984 or 1985, he said....Editorial: Yucca goes to court Making their case before a judicial panel convened at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Wednesday, attorneys for Nevada argued the state had been unfairly singled out for the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository -- a plea which received a chilly reception, given that no one challenged Judge David Tatel's contention that the land is, in fact, "federal property." "This concerns the use of federal property in the state," said Judge Tatel. "When you are talking about federal property, it is not intuitive to consult the states." Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval had early on vowed an objection to that premise would be one of the tactics the state employed. So why did that premise apparently go unchallenged? An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is expected, regardless of Wednesday's result. But the opportunity to introduce a stronger case for Nevada's sovereignty over her own lands may just have gone a-glimmering....Column: Methane industry should listen to farmers Caskey and other out-of-state methane executives seem to think safeguards for our clean irrigation water and valuable aquifers are obstacles to development. They consider filling out the right paperwork a “hoop” and “hurdle,” but they only do that after they’ve been sued. For farmers, ranchers and others who rely on that same water for irrigation, stock and our homes, those safeguards are the key to making sure we can pass on our operations to our kids and grandkids. Legal opinion supports GF&P's private access policy A legal opinion from the state attorney general supports current practice of state conservation officers to enter private land without permission to check hunters and enforce wildlife laws. In an official opinion released Thursday, Attorney General Larry Long said conservation officers are not guilty of trespassing, nor do they violate constitutional provisions against "unreasonable searches and seizures," even though they enter the land without permission, a warrant or reasonable suspicion of a crime. The dispute over property rights surfaced in Harding County last fall when a rancher signed a trespass complaint against a GF&P officer. Long's office still hasn't determined whether to charge the conservation officer. Long's opinion likely strengthens the resolve of legislators and landowners who will push the Legislature to restrict GF&P authority....Rustlers may ride again on the Colorado plains Since the 1860s, when Colorado cattle baron John Iliff discovered it was more profitable selling beef to gold miners than panning for flakes himself, stockmen have been converting golden prairie grass into cash. Along with that movement came unscrupulous cowboys who sought shortcuts to riches and stole cattle grazing on the vast eastern range. Cattle theft can be more lucrative than burglary, and few thieves are ever caught. A house thief can get only a fraction of the value of a stolen television set at a pawn shop, but a cattle thief can get top market value for a calf, a mother cow or a bull at an auction barn, Gray said....Ranch horses compete on first day of Fort Worth livestock event Traditional horse events at the stock show feature animals specifically bred for show. Not the case for the ranching-horse competition, which premiered two years ago. "This type of event is very much geared toward ranching horses," said Bruce McCarty, horse show manager for the stock show. "These horses, they're not pampered very much. They work every day." Mr. McCarty said the Fort Worth stock show was one of the first in the nation to present such an event, and it has quickly become one of its most well-attended competitions. It's also one of the most difficult to enter. The event, which lasted more than six hours, requires too much time to allow more than 15 contestants. James Gholson of Guthrie, Okla., won the competition riding Pay One, who will be sold at the stock show today.... Life as a young cowgirl By age 12 Rosalee Barnhart Shirley was a real cowgirl. She could saddle her own horse, and for two fall seasons in the 1930s, a Dexter family paid her to herd cattle on their ranch. The year was 1935 when Shirley wrangled her first herd. Paying jobs were slim for a young girl. Shirley, now 81, jumped at the opportunity. In the 1930s ranchers hauled their livestock to market on boxcars, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad ran through the center of Dexter. Another year Shirley helped lead the cattle from the ranch to the railroad’s loading docks, just past Dexter’s old depot.... They rub horses the right way Equine massage therapists Jeanell Evans and Rebecca Wyatt rub away the aches and pains of their hoofed clients, but the treatments also benefit horse owners. Evans, 50, and Wyatt, 32, long-time family friends and Northwest Side residents, are certified equine message therapists, though both have other full-time jobs. Evans is a physical therapy technician and Wyatt is a veterinary technician. When treating a horse, Evans runs her hands over the animal looking for indentations, swelling, knots, tightness or tender spots that indicate problem areas. She applies between 3 and 8 pounds of pressure to the point to relieve the muscle stress. "We just use a light amount of pressure," Evans said. "It's not how much pressure you can put, it's where you put it. You don't use strength. You use knowledge." As part of treatment, the women stretch the animals' legs, and massage their gums too....Hollywood to break last taboo with gay cowboys Heath Ledger, star of A Knight's Tale, and Jake Gyllenhaal, best known from the arthouse hit Donnie Darko, are lined up to play star-crossed lovers in director Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, a frank portrayal of physical and emotional bonds between men. It is a story of two cowboys who spend a summer on the range in 1963. Under the open skies of Wyoming, the pair fall into a tempestuous love affair and forge a relationship that lasts the rest of their lives. Though major Hollywood stars such as Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas have played gay roles in the past, none has done so with such frank intimacy....Permissive society can have bite to it One of my favorite places to hunt squirrels for years was owned by an elderly gentleman who lived alone. I wouldn't say he talked a lot but he definitely didn't believe in letting silence hang in the air too long. His sentences were not limited by the normal laws of grammar but by the movement of the sun and moon. He wouldn't have known a period if it hit him in the face. His run-on sentences began at dawn and ended some time after he went to sleep....
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Friday, January 16, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Ski industry takes aim at NEPA reform It’s not every day senior White House officials visit the Colorado high country, but in mid-January, Horst Greczmiel, a top advisor on environmental policy, came to Copper Mountain Resort to participate in a regional roundtable on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The 30-year old federal law ensures that government officials consider environmental impacts when they make decisions affecting federal lands. Under NEPA, agencies like the U.S. Forest Service must try to include the public in the decision-making process from its earliest stages. The law also requires agencies to evaluate and disclose the potential impacts of proposed activities on federal lands, not only to the environment, but to cultural resources and local economies....Cause of fire still cloudy What caused the Grand Prix fire? So far, no one knows, not even the investigators. In fact, they haven't classified the fire that destroyed nearly 200 homes in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties as either an accident or arson....Lawsuit seeks snowmobile bridge removal A lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula Thursday to force the Flathead National Forest to remove a snowmobile bridge. The bridge was recently installed under a special use permit issued to the Flathead Snowmobile Association. The Swan View Coalition filed the lawsuit because it wants the bridge over Lost Johnny Creek in the northern Swan Mountains removed by March 15, when grizzly bears emerge from their dens after hibernation....With attention from sightings, environmentalists want plan to manage cougars Indigenous to the region before the arrival of European settlers, cougars and other predators were hunted and trapped in the 1800s and early 1900s to the point where they were listed as vanished from the state. Recent sightings have fueled a debate over whether the animals were wiped out. The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy wants to foster a cougar management program that ensures enough genetic diversity to support a small, sustainable population. But it also wants recognition of its argument that a potentially viable, breeding cougar population exists in the Upper and Lower peninsulas. The state Department of Natural Resources, however, says there’s no proof the animal makes Michigan its home....Salmon Advocates File Suit Seeking Basin-Wide Analysis: Biological Opinion violates ESA, groups say Conservation groups and Pacific Coast commercial fishermen filed suit today asking a federal judge to declare illegal a NOAA Fisheries' Biological Opinion (Bi-Op) governing the operation of Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in the Snake River basin. On behalf of Idaho Rivers United, American Rivers, National Wildlife Federation, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Institute for Fisheries Resources (PCFFA/IFR), Earthjustice attorneys asked the court to order the fisheries agency to correct numerous errors in its analysis of the effects of these projects on endangered salmon and steelhead and develop a comprehensive plan to restore these fish....Federal government sued over cuts in vernal pools' protection Three environmental groups have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to cut by more than half the number of acres it will protect for seasonal ponds that support 15 species of rare plants and tiny shrimp. The service's original 2002 proposal was to protect nearly 1.7 million acres of vernal pools in 36 counties. However, developers said the designation would hurt housing construction in the fast-growing Central Valley, while farmers said it would hurt agriculture and land prices. The service said in August it would instead designate 740,000 acres in 30 California counties and one in Oregon as "critical habitat" for the vernal pool species....Environmentalists win timber battle A federal magistrate has ruled in favor of four environmental groups that sued to block a timber sale near the Wild and Scenic section of the Rogue River. The summary finding by U.S. District Magistrate John P. Cooney in Medford asks the Bureau or Land Management to reconsider the Pickett Snake sale. He said the sale - completed in 2002 but held up in the courts since - violates the agency's Medford District resources management plan, as well as federal environmental law....Isleta pledges support to help minnow Isleta Pueblo Gov. Alvino Lucero stood beside the Rio Grande to say the pueblo was committed to helping restore the bosque and save the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. The pueblo on Wednesday became the 21st government entity or private organization to join the Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Act Work Group, which seeks cooperative ways to ensure the minnow can survive despite the ongoing drought and competing human needs for water from the river....Environment Groups Assail Bush Record President George W. Bush has the worst environmental record in American history and shows no signs of changing his tune, environmentalists said Wednesday at a press briefing. The panel of experts from many of the nation's major environmental organizations said the administration is enacting a broad agenda to relax federal environmental laws and limit the ability of federal agencies to protect the nation's air, water and public lands....Court to Decide Golf Course Development Conservation groups asked a federal appeals court to halt a golf course and subdivision planned in northwestern Wyoming because the impact on bald eagles wasn't seriously considered. Canyon Club Inc. is building an 18-hole golf course and 71-home development along the Snake River 17 miles south of Jackson, Wyo....Biology teachers admit to taking skull, horns from park Two biology teachers at Brigham Young University-Idaho have been convicted of illegally taking a bighorn sheep skull and horns from Yellowstone National Park, the National Park Service announced Friday. On Jan. 7, U.S. Magistrate Stephen Cole ordered each of them to pay $1,750 in restitution, placed them on federal probation for three years and banned them from the park for two years....Hiring allies from Durham gets Chambers in hot water Among the issues that federal officials have cited in pushing to remove former Durham police Chief Teresa Chambers from her job as chief of the U.S. Park Police are several instances of misconduct involving the hiring of two former Durham allies for top positions at the national agency. A federal memorandum outlining the reasons she should be fired notes that the U.S. Office of Special Counsel -- an independent federal investigative agency -- has been probing "alleged prohibited personnel practices" in Chambers' hiring of former Durham City Councilwoman Pamela Blyth, former Durham police Maj. Dwight Pettiford, and Barry Beam, a former officer in Prince George's County, Md., where Chambers worked before coming to Durham. The three make up the core of Chambers' command circle: Pettiford and Beam are deputy chiefs, while Blyth is her special assistant....BLM loses in court: Judge says federal agency violated rules on advisors The Bureau of Land Management violated regulations it wrote to ensure a "fair membership balance" on Resource Advisory Councils in Colorado, according to a U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. The ruling overturns a U.S. District Court ruling and allows Sarah Peters and Joshua Houdek to continue litigation against the BLM. They allege the agency politicized the appointment process for advisory councils that are intended to provide a representative voice of the public on various public lands management issues.... Leaders focus on river, fire issues The director of the Bureau of Land Management pledged Thursday to include local government representatives in major decisions that affect the lower Deschutes River, including whether to require permits to float the popular stretch. The commitment came after a coalition of local government representatives objected to plans by the BLM, Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs to implement a limited permit system on part of the river beginning July 1, 2005....Mining ties of company hired to draft Steens plan draw fire The top Democrat on the U.S. House Resources Committee says the hiring of a company with mining industry ties to prepare a plan for Steens Mountain creates potential conflicts of interest "that cannot be brushed aside or quietly ignored." Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to "take steps to ensure the integrity of the Steens planning effort."....Wyden asks for probe Sen. Ron Wyden asked for a federal investigation Friday into how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management chose a contractor with mining industry ties to help develop a management plan for public lands in southeastern Oregon. "This particular case raises such a serious perception of impropriety that it threatens to undermine the public's confidence in the protections accorded Steens Mountain," the Oregon Democrat wrote in a letter to the inspector general of the Department of Interior. Wyden's request is part of a growing amount of criticism from Democrats aimed at the Bush administration over BLM's hiring of Enviroscientists Inc. of Reno, Nev., for $670,000 to help write a new management plan for Steens Mountain and the Andrews Resource Area....Yengich hired to defend Kane County officials Kane County has hired a prominent criminal defense attorney to represent three county officials who are the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation. Ron Yengich was hired secretly in November to represent County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw, Sheriff Lamont Smith and roads superintendent Lou Pratt in a probe related to their removal of federally owned signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The probe centers on Habbeshaw, Smith and Pratt, who drove into the Grand Staircase-Escalante in early August and removed 31 "Carsonite" markers, thin signs used to delineate trails, roads and travel restrictions. All of the 31 markers indicated restrictions or prohibitions on off-highway vehicles. The officials say they removed the signs after concluding they infringed on county rights of way under a 19th-century law known as RS2477....Lynx from Canada arriving in Colorado It has been an excellent trapping season so far for lynx in Quebec, and the first animals have started arriving for release in Colorado. The state Division of Wildlife hopes that 50 lynx from Manitoba and British Columbia will join those from Quebec, raising the number known in the wilds of Colorado from 78 adults and 16 kittens to more than 150....Bill to ban slaughter of bison advances A proposal to ban the killing of Yellowstone National Park bison on any federal lands has picked up more than 40 sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is similar to a measure that attracted wide support in the House last year, failing by a fairly narrow margin of 190 to 210. I believe it was the first time most members of Congress were aware of the issue, Michael Scott, director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said of last year's floor debate and vote....Sequoia Plan Trims Timber Cutting The U.S. Forest Service has backed away from some controversial parts of its plan to manage the Giant Sequoia National Monument, but is still calling for extensive timber cutting in the southern Sierra preserve. A final management plan released Friday by the Forest Service projects about a third less logging in the monument than initially proposed in a much-criticized draft issued a year ago. It also drops plans to create gaps — essentially mini-clear cuts — in the sequoia groves, which the Forest Service had said were necessary to encourage sequoia reproduction....STATE RULES NO VACANCY IN UPSHUR COUNTY More than 4,600 acres of Upshur County land and minerals worth untold millions of dollars don't belong to the state, but to the people who owned them before finding themselves embroiled in the state's largest modern land dispute, the Texas land commissioner ruled Friday. Commissioner Jerry Patterson's ruling still leaves uncertainty as to the outcome of the dispute, because the attorney pushing the land vacancy claim said he hasn't consulted with his clients about whether to appeal the ruling. That's good news to more than 1,600 landowners who have worried for months that their holdings could be in jeopardy. Potentially thousands more have rights to mineral royalties in the oil-rich area. The monthslong dispute has embittered scores of retirees who depend on regular checks from oil companies....Left out West The West is listening. But is anybody out there talking? In just two weeks, a chunk of Western states, including New Mexico, will choose among the nine Democrats now running for their party's nomination for president. Not a region rich in delegates, the arid West is nevertheless loaded with big issues: Water scarcity, immigration, border trade, healthy forests and growth dominate headlines. But a variety of Western experts and activists say they're still waiting to hear the Democratic candidates devote themselves to regional matters....Column: Nuke route a funny way to think The preferred nuclear waste route selection made by the Department of Energy as announced on Dec. 23 is truly ludicrous in my way of thinking. Why would anyone build a 319-mile rail line, locking up 300,000 plus acres in lieu of 214 miles and a lot less open public land, just because the U.S. Air Force objected? The state of Nevada has objected to the Yucca Mountain Project from the beginning and no one seems to be listening to them, so why should the Air Force be any different?....The nation´s forest chief warns of four threats to our forests U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth told employees Friday how to help him rebuild trust in the agency as they set up a thinning program to reduce the threat of fire. I want people to be darned sure it´s a fuels treatment project and not a timber sale project cloaked up,” Bosworth said at the Idaho Environmental Forum. No longer, he said, does the agency consider timber cutting and road building its primary mission. The new threats to the nation´s forests are fuel buildup and fires, motorized recreation, the loss of open space and invasive alien species....U.S. Official Says WTO Backs United States Position on Softwood Lumber The World Trade Organization has upheld steep antidumping tariffs that the United States has imposed on softwood lumber imports from Canada, a U.S. trade official said Friday. The decision by a World Trade Organization dispute panel was received late Friday by the U.S. government, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not yet been made public....Mexico promises substantial payment on water debt For the first time in a decade, Mexico has not only met but surpassed its obligation of Rio Grande water to the United States, Texas and federal officials said Friday. Since Oct. 1, Mexico has transferred 383,554 acre feet of water to the United States, said Sally Spener of the International Boundary and Water Commission. The commission oversees Rio Grande water accounts. Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is obligated to transfer 350,000 acre feet of water a year over a five-year period. Mexico had fallen behind on its payments under the treaty over the past decade. U.S. officials say Mexico owes 1.3 million acre feet....Officer kills wrong big cat The mistaken shooting of a domestic cat is prompting Redlands police to issue binoculars to officers involved in the hunt for a mountain lion that is believed to have been menacing residential neighborhoods for at least 2½ years. "We've issued binoculars to help them identify ... the animal," Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueerman said Friday, a day after an officer killed the wrong animal. "It was a big cat, but it was still a house cat."....Brochure gives city folks the poop on country life: Transplants warned about farm fumes With the warning that "manure happens," a planned brochure will tell city dwellers what to expect if they decide to move to the country. Sure, "manure happens." Other stuff happens, too: noise from animals and farm machinery; blowing dust; mud; and farm work into the evening. And, of course, odor....Bullish on Cowtown Since its inception in the late 1800s, rodeo has galloped from impromptu bronc and steer busting contests on cattle drives to a sophisticated sport that is featured in upscale metropolitan venues. And no part of the show is bigger than bull riding. For the past decade, rodeo's headline event -- and its most dangerous -- has busted into a lucrative league of its own with high-profile cowboys, TV contracts and NASCAR-like following. For the first time in its 108-year history, the Stock Show Rodeo will capitalize on the sport's growth and feature Bulls Night Out, a one-night, one-shot event showcasing some of the best bull riders and nastiest bulls around....DRAWN TO THE WEST Wallace Simpson vividly painted the cowboy life -- branding, bucking broncos, a soft blue dawn greeting a cattle drive. Fort Worth embraced him, and the one-time cowboy became one of the city's best-known artists. Throughout the 1920s, the Star-Telegram featured his full-page color illustrations and smaller drawings....High-dollar horses elevate Ranch Rodeo to high art Several big-time ranches demonstrate their daily chores at the Stock Show's "Best of the West" Ranch Rodeo today. Real cowboys will rope and ride on their ranches' best horses. On Sunday we learn just how much money those horses are worth. It will be a staggering amount. Last year's champion ranch horse, a 10-year-old gray gelding from the Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, went for $40,000. These horses are geldings. They can't reproduce. What you buy is what you get and that's the end of it. Fifteen horses are in this invitational sale, and they'll be put to the test. Judges will watch the horses work cattle, slide to stops, roll back over their hip and change directions, drag a log and open a gate, then stand quietly in the middle of the arena when the rider drops the reins and walks away. Horse enthusiasts have come to admire ranch horses. And while not all the horses will bring tens of thousands of dollars, the average price in last year's sale was an amazing $13,600....On The Edge Of Common Sense: Diminutive dog proves to be a survivor Over the years, I've become accustomed to the incongruous sight of rugged ranching families with their weathered faces, rough hands, fearsome pickups and macho confidence, carrying a small dog. These petite pups look out of place amongst the bullying blue healers, busy border collies, exuberant shepherds, saddle horses, hay wagons, big tires and steel-shod hooves that make up the rancher's daily environment. They are like a corsage on a backhoe bucket....
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Ski industry takes aim at NEPA reform It’s not every day senior White House officials visit the Colorado high country, but in mid-January, Horst Greczmiel, a top advisor on environmental policy, came to Copper Mountain Resort to participate in a regional roundtable on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The 30-year old federal law ensures that government officials consider environmental impacts when they make decisions affecting federal lands. Under NEPA, agencies like the U.S. Forest Service must try to include the public in the decision-making process from its earliest stages. The law also requires agencies to evaluate and disclose the potential impacts of proposed activities on federal lands, not only to the environment, but to cultural resources and local economies....Cause of fire still cloudy What caused the Grand Prix fire? So far, no one knows, not even the investigators. In fact, they haven't classified the fire that destroyed nearly 200 homes in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties as either an accident or arson....Lawsuit seeks snowmobile bridge removal A lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula Thursday to force the Flathead National Forest to remove a snowmobile bridge. The bridge was recently installed under a special use permit issued to the Flathead Snowmobile Association. The Swan View Coalition filed the lawsuit because it wants the bridge over Lost Johnny Creek in the northern Swan Mountains removed by March 15, when grizzly bears emerge from their dens after hibernation....With attention from sightings, environmentalists want plan to manage cougars Indigenous to the region before the arrival of European settlers, cougars and other predators were hunted and trapped in the 1800s and early 1900s to the point where they were listed as vanished from the state. Recent sightings have fueled a debate over whether the animals were wiped out. The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy wants to foster a cougar management program that ensures enough genetic diversity to support a small, sustainable population. But it also wants recognition of its argument that a potentially viable, breeding cougar population exists in the Upper and Lower peninsulas. The state Department of Natural Resources, however, says there’s no proof the animal makes Michigan its home....Salmon Advocates File Suit Seeking Basin-Wide Analysis: Biological Opinion violates ESA, groups say Conservation groups and Pacific Coast commercial fishermen filed suit today asking a federal judge to declare illegal a NOAA Fisheries' Biological Opinion (Bi-Op) governing the operation of Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in the Snake River basin. On behalf of Idaho Rivers United, American Rivers, National Wildlife Federation, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Institute for Fisheries Resources (PCFFA/IFR), Earthjustice attorneys asked the court to order the fisheries agency to correct numerous errors in its analysis of the effects of these projects on endangered salmon and steelhead and develop a comprehensive plan to restore these fish....Federal government sued over cuts in vernal pools' protection Three environmental groups have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to cut by more than half the number of acres it will protect for seasonal ponds that support 15 species of rare plants and tiny shrimp. The service's original 2002 proposal was to protect nearly 1.7 million acres of vernal pools in 36 counties. However, developers said the designation would hurt housing construction in the fast-growing Central Valley, while farmers said it would hurt agriculture and land prices. The service said in August it would instead designate 740,000 acres in 30 California counties and one in Oregon as "critical habitat" for the vernal pool species....Environmentalists win timber battle A federal magistrate has ruled in favor of four environmental groups that sued to block a timber sale near the Wild and Scenic section of the Rogue River. The summary finding by U.S. District Magistrate John P. Cooney in Medford asks the Bureau or Land Management to reconsider the Pickett Snake sale. He said the sale - completed in 2002 but held up in the courts since - violates the agency's Medford District resources management plan, as well as federal environmental law....Isleta pledges support to help minnow Isleta Pueblo Gov. Alvino Lucero stood beside the Rio Grande to say the pueblo was committed to helping restore the bosque and save the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. The pueblo on Wednesday became the 21st government entity or private organization to join the Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Act Work Group, which seeks cooperative ways to ensure the minnow can survive despite the ongoing drought and competing human needs for water from the river....Environment Groups Assail Bush Record President George W. Bush has the worst environmental record in American history and shows no signs of changing his tune, environmentalists said Wednesday at a press briefing. The panel of experts from many of the nation's major environmental organizations said the administration is enacting a broad agenda to relax federal environmental laws and limit the ability of federal agencies to protect the nation's air, water and public lands....Court to Decide Golf Course Development Conservation groups asked a federal appeals court to halt a golf course and subdivision planned in northwestern Wyoming because the impact on bald eagles wasn't seriously considered. Canyon Club Inc. is building an 18-hole golf course and 71-home development along the Snake River 17 miles south of Jackson, Wyo....Biology teachers admit to taking skull, horns from park Two biology teachers at Brigham Young University-Idaho have been convicted of illegally taking a bighorn sheep skull and horns from Yellowstone National Park, the National Park Service announced Friday. On Jan. 7, U.S. Magistrate Stephen Cole ordered each of them to pay $1,750 in restitution, placed them on federal probation for three years and banned them from the park for two years....Hiring allies from Durham gets Chambers in hot water Among the issues that federal officials have cited in pushing to remove former Durham police Chief Teresa Chambers from her job as chief of the U.S. Park Police are several instances of misconduct involving the hiring of two former Durham allies for top positions at the national agency. A federal memorandum outlining the reasons she should be fired notes that the U.S. Office of Special Counsel -- an independent federal investigative agency -- has been probing "alleged prohibited personnel practices" in Chambers' hiring of former Durham City Councilwoman Pamela Blyth, former Durham police Maj. Dwight Pettiford, and Barry Beam, a former officer in Prince George's County, Md., where Chambers worked before coming to Durham. The three make up the core of Chambers' command circle: Pettiford and Beam are deputy chiefs, while Blyth is her special assistant....BLM loses in court: Judge says federal agency violated rules on advisors The Bureau of Land Management violated regulations it wrote to ensure a "fair membership balance" on Resource Advisory Councils in Colorado, according to a U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. The ruling overturns a U.S. District Court ruling and allows Sarah Peters and Joshua Houdek to continue litigation against the BLM. They allege the agency politicized the appointment process for advisory councils that are intended to provide a representative voice of the public on various public lands management issues.... Leaders focus on river, fire issues The director of the Bureau of Land Management pledged Thursday to include local government representatives in major decisions that affect the lower Deschutes River, including whether to require permits to float the popular stretch. The commitment came after a coalition of local government representatives objected to plans by the BLM, Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs to implement a limited permit system on part of the river beginning July 1, 2005....Mining ties of company hired to draft Steens plan draw fire The top Democrat on the U.S. House Resources Committee says the hiring of a company with mining industry ties to prepare a plan for Steens Mountain creates potential conflicts of interest "that cannot be brushed aside or quietly ignored." Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton to "take steps to ensure the integrity of the Steens planning effort."....Wyden asks for probe Sen. Ron Wyden asked for a federal investigation Friday into how the U.S. Bureau of Land Management chose a contractor with mining industry ties to help develop a management plan for public lands in southeastern Oregon. "This particular case raises such a serious perception of impropriety that it threatens to undermine the public's confidence in the protections accorded Steens Mountain," the Oregon Democrat wrote in a letter to the inspector general of the Department of Interior. Wyden's request is part of a growing amount of criticism from Democrats aimed at the Bush administration over BLM's hiring of Enviroscientists Inc. of Reno, Nev., for $670,000 to help write a new management plan for Steens Mountain and the Andrews Resource Area....Yengich hired to defend Kane County officials Kane County has hired a prominent criminal defense attorney to represent three county officials who are the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation. Ron Yengich was hired secretly in November to represent County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw, Sheriff Lamont Smith and roads superintendent Lou Pratt in a probe related to their removal of federally owned signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The probe centers on Habbeshaw, Smith and Pratt, who drove into the Grand Staircase-Escalante in early August and removed 31 "Carsonite" markers, thin signs used to delineate trails, roads and travel restrictions. All of the 31 markers indicated restrictions or prohibitions on off-highway vehicles. The officials say they removed the signs after concluding they infringed on county rights of way under a 19th-century law known as RS2477....Lynx from Canada arriving in Colorado It has been an excellent trapping season so far for lynx in Quebec, and the first animals have started arriving for release in Colorado. The state Division of Wildlife hopes that 50 lynx from Manitoba and British Columbia will join those from Quebec, raising the number known in the wilds of Colorado from 78 adults and 16 kittens to more than 150....Bill to ban slaughter of bison advances A proposal to ban the killing of Yellowstone National Park bison on any federal lands has picked up more than 40 sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is similar to a measure that attracted wide support in the House last year, failing by a fairly narrow margin of 190 to 210. I believe it was the first time most members of Congress were aware of the issue, Michael Scott, director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said of last year's floor debate and vote....Sequoia Plan Trims Timber Cutting The U.S. Forest Service has backed away from some controversial parts of its plan to manage the Giant Sequoia National Monument, but is still calling for extensive timber cutting in the southern Sierra preserve. A final management plan released Friday by the Forest Service projects about a third less logging in the monument than initially proposed in a much-criticized draft issued a year ago. It also drops plans to create gaps — essentially mini-clear cuts — in the sequoia groves, which the Forest Service had said were necessary to encourage sequoia reproduction....STATE RULES NO VACANCY IN UPSHUR COUNTY More than 4,600 acres of Upshur County land and minerals worth untold millions of dollars don't belong to the state, but to the people who owned them before finding themselves embroiled in the state's largest modern land dispute, the Texas land commissioner ruled Friday. Commissioner Jerry Patterson's ruling still leaves uncertainty as to the outcome of the dispute, because the attorney pushing the land vacancy claim said he hasn't consulted with his clients about whether to appeal the ruling. That's good news to more than 1,600 landowners who have worried for months that their holdings could be in jeopardy. Potentially thousands more have rights to mineral royalties in the oil-rich area. The monthslong dispute has embittered scores of retirees who depend on regular checks from oil companies....Left out West The West is listening. But is anybody out there talking? In just two weeks, a chunk of Western states, including New Mexico, will choose among the nine Democrats now running for their party's nomination for president. Not a region rich in delegates, the arid West is nevertheless loaded with big issues: Water scarcity, immigration, border trade, healthy forests and growth dominate headlines. But a variety of Western experts and activists say they're still waiting to hear the Democratic candidates devote themselves to regional matters....Column: Nuke route a funny way to think The preferred nuclear waste route selection made by the Department of Energy as announced on Dec. 23 is truly ludicrous in my way of thinking. Why would anyone build a 319-mile rail line, locking up 300,000 plus acres in lieu of 214 miles and a lot less open public land, just because the U.S. Air Force objected? The state of Nevada has objected to the Yucca Mountain Project from the beginning and no one seems to be listening to them, so why should the Air Force be any different?....The nation´s forest chief warns of four threats to our forests U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth told employees Friday how to help him rebuild trust in the agency as they set up a thinning program to reduce the threat of fire. I want people to be darned sure it´s a fuels treatment project and not a timber sale project cloaked up,” Bosworth said at the Idaho Environmental Forum. No longer, he said, does the agency consider timber cutting and road building its primary mission. The new threats to the nation´s forests are fuel buildup and fires, motorized recreation, the loss of open space and invasive alien species....U.S. Official Says WTO Backs United States Position on Softwood Lumber The World Trade Organization has upheld steep antidumping tariffs that the United States has imposed on softwood lumber imports from Canada, a U.S. trade official said Friday. The decision by a World Trade Organization dispute panel was received late Friday by the U.S. government, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not yet been made public....Mexico promises substantial payment on water debt For the first time in a decade, Mexico has not only met but surpassed its obligation of Rio Grande water to the United States, Texas and federal officials said Friday. Since Oct. 1, Mexico has transferred 383,554 acre feet of water to the United States, said Sally Spener of the International Boundary and Water Commission. The commission oversees Rio Grande water accounts. Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is obligated to transfer 350,000 acre feet of water a year over a five-year period. Mexico had fallen behind on its payments under the treaty over the past decade. U.S. officials say Mexico owes 1.3 million acre feet....Officer kills wrong big cat The mistaken shooting of a domestic cat is prompting Redlands police to issue binoculars to officers involved in the hunt for a mountain lion that is believed to have been menacing residential neighborhoods for at least 2½ years. "We've issued binoculars to help them identify ... the animal," Redlands Police Chief Jim Bueerman said Friday, a day after an officer killed the wrong animal. "It was a big cat, but it was still a house cat."....Brochure gives city folks the poop on country life: Transplants warned about farm fumes With the warning that "manure happens," a planned brochure will tell city dwellers what to expect if they decide to move to the country. Sure, "manure happens." Other stuff happens, too: noise from animals and farm machinery; blowing dust; mud; and farm work into the evening. And, of course, odor....Bullish on Cowtown Since its inception in the late 1800s, rodeo has galloped from impromptu bronc and steer busting contests on cattle drives to a sophisticated sport that is featured in upscale metropolitan venues. And no part of the show is bigger than bull riding. For the past decade, rodeo's headline event -- and its most dangerous -- has busted into a lucrative league of its own with high-profile cowboys, TV contracts and NASCAR-like following. For the first time in its 108-year history, the Stock Show Rodeo will capitalize on the sport's growth and feature Bulls Night Out, a one-night, one-shot event showcasing some of the best bull riders and nastiest bulls around....DRAWN TO THE WEST Wallace Simpson vividly painted the cowboy life -- branding, bucking broncos, a soft blue dawn greeting a cattle drive. Fort Worth embraced him, and the one-time cowboy became one of the city's best-known artists. Throughout the 1920s, the Star-Telegram featured his full-page color illustrations and smaller drawings....High-dollar horses elevate Ranch Rodeo to high art Several big-time ranches demonstrate their daily chores at the Stock Show's "Best of the West" Ranch Rodeo today. Real cowboys will rope and ride on their ranches' best horses. On Sunday we learn just how much money those horses are worth. It will be a staggering amount. Last year's champion ranch horse, a 10-year-old gray gelding from the Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, went for $40,000. These horses are geldings. They can't reproduce. What you buy is what you get and that's the end of it. Fifteen horses are in this invitational sale, and they'll be put to the test. Judges will watch the horses work cattle, slide to stops, roll back over their hip and change directions, drag a log and open a gate, then stand quietly in the middle of the arena when the rider drops the reins and walks away. Horse enthusiasts have come to admire ranch horses. And while not all the horses will bring tens of thousands of dollars, the average price in last year's sale was an amazing $13,600....On The Edge Of Common Sense: Diminutive dog proves to be a survivor Over the years, I've become accustomed to the incongruous sight of rugged ranching families with their weathered faces, rough hands, fearsome pickups and macho confidence, carrying a small dog. These petite pups look out of place amongst the bullying blue healers, busy border collies, exuberant shepherds, saddle horses, hay wagons, big tires and steel-shod hooves that make up the rancher's daily environment. They are like a corsage on a backhoe bucket....
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Thursday, January 15, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Alaska Region begins national Forest Service pilot for performance accountability The Forest Service announced today that a Texas consulting firm had been hired to guide its Alaska Region as it begins a pilot program to shift to performance-based accountability. Weidner Consulting from Austin, Texas, has been retained to assist in forming a "Credibility through Accountability" system for the Region here. The Alaska Region performance accountability system will serve as the pilot in the Forest Service's national performance accountability system. The national system is being developed in response to the General Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget’s increased focus on greater accountability and customer-based results for federal agencies. The Forest Service presently uses a budget-driven accountability system....Forester says delays in logging could ruin wildfire salvage plan A leading expert on salvage logging says he doubts much of the charred timber from the 2002 Biscuit Fire in southern Oregon will ever be cut because decay has made recovering the trees uneconomical. Oregon State University forestry professor John Sessions had calculated that rapid salvage logging could earn enough to pay for both the costs of fighting the blaze and replanting hillsides. The Siskiyou National Forest used his analysis to boost its proposed cutting more than fivefold. But the federal process for mounting logging operations could take until the summer to complete. And Sessions told more than 150 people at a forum in Eugene this week that the burned timber deteriorates so quickly 40 percent will be worthless to sawmills by this summer.... SUV Owners of America Call on Attorney General Ashcroft To Take Action Against Escalating Domestic Eco-Terrorism Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA) today called on Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to step up intelligence and federal enforcement action against The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a militant environmental group, that today defiantly took responsibility for destroying sport utility vehicles (SUVs) at a Santa Fe, NM Land Rover dealership, and U.S. Forest Service construction equipment. The group this week released a list claiming responsibility for 75 such acts of domestic terrorism and claimed responsibility for some 75 other domestic terrorist acts around the country. To date, SUVs have been destroyed at dealerships in California, Texas and Virginia, in addition to the latest incident in New Mexico. On its Web site, the group boasts of causing upward of $55 million in damages for acts of terrorism....Another contractor hired for horse roundup in Carson National Forest The U.S. Forest Service has hired another contractor to try to round up wild horses in the Carson National Forest. Officials hired Mount Taylor Mustangs on Monday. The contractor has 60 days to gather 30 wild horses in the Jarita Mesa Wild Horse Territory. Officials say the contractor plans to use salt as bait to lure the horses into pens set up where the horses frequent. The previous contractor failed to capture any horses before calling it quits earlier this month....Fire review’s omissions questioned U.S. Forest Service officials are considering reinserting some of the many pieces of information blacked out in the official report investigating the deaths of Idaho wildland firefighters Jeff Allen and Shane Heath in July. The 80-page report, issued by the Forest Service Monday, had all of the names of people involved and several blocks of text edited out (redacted) by federal Freedom of Information Act officials, who cited privacy concerns. The redactions make it almost impossible to tell who made which decisions that led to the deaths of Allen and Heath or to follow the narrative of the chain of events that led to the fatal accident July 22....Clock ticks on York transfer When York was founded 138 years ago, people weren't too particular about some of the property lines. Miners would stake their claims with definitions as vague as "running from the toe of the hillside to the toe of the other hillside," according to York resident and historian David Ray Olson. Mining claims often were of irregular sizes, and boundaries didn't necessarily abut. In addition, no one bothered to claim the property on which the cemetery was established in the 1860s — "who's going to claim a cemetery," Olson questioned rhetorically — or on the property where the first schoolhouse was erected. "The people who lived here then worried more about the value of the minerals; no one enforced boundaries," Olson noted. But after the formation of the United States Forest Service in 1905, and as houses were built and sold on those old mining claims, the boundaries took on more significance as the federal government took ownership of unclaimed lands in the area....Proposed trail restrictions create controversy The U.S. Forest Service appears to have stirred a hornet's nest with proposed restrictions on use of off-road vehicles, "but that's good," according to Rick Lint. Lint, ranger for the Calcasieu District of Kisatchie National Forest, said a gathering of forest users in the district office parking lot earlier in the week to "protest" the proposed rule was a positive response rather than a negative one. The group of about 60 hunters and sportsmen showed up at the urging of Robert "Boo" Maddox IV, who complained the rule would ban four-wheelers from the 184,000 acres in the Calcasieu District. Maddox has called a public meeting at his shop on Ward Road near Cotile Lake at 6 p.m. Saturday to discuss the proposed rule and to offer an organized response to the Forest Service before the public comment period is closed Jan. 30....Freudenthal blasts U.S. wolf decision Election-year politics in the Bush administration fueled a federal decision earlier this week to reject Wyoming's plan for managing wolves, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Thursday. During a press conference, Freudenthal said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave conflicting feedback on Wyoming's proposal - first appearing to support it while it was being developed in the Legislature and then panning it on Tuesday. "They could have said last year that this statute was fundamentally flawed," the governor said. He said he believes the Bush administration ultimately turned down Wyoming's plan in an effort to shore up support on environmental issues as the 2004 election looms. "It is a case where they decided to listen to certain kinds of pro-wolf environmentalists more significantly than they listened to a Western interest like Wyoming," Freudenthal said. "The lash of federal servitude has fallen across our back and I don't like it."....Editorial: Wyoming stymies wolf delisting Federal rejection of Wyoming's plan means that federal rules will continue to apply for all three states — and that means the states will have no way to hold the wolf population down. Wyoming stockgrowers are urging the state to stand firm against the feds, and treat wolves as expendable predators rather than a wildlife resource to be maintained. We hope they change their minds. That would in their best interest — and in Montana and Idaho's best interest as well....Conservationists warn Corps about 2004 Missouri River Operations Conservationists served notice to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers yesterday that it must operate its Missouri River dams in accordance with a "Biological Opinion" issued in 2000 -- rather than an amended opinion issued in December of 2003 -- to avoid another lawsuit over its operations this summer. After reviewing the amended opinion, conservationists have concluded it would lead to continued decline of the Missouri's native fish and wildlife and therefore does not pass muster as a matter of law. The groups also believe the amendment is likely to prolong the dispute over management of the river than to resolve it....Column: When insects take priority Our school enrollment is spiking, we have numerous schools from elementary, middle schools and high schools all being planned to accommodate this increasing school enrollment. Yet our federal government puts education and the welfare of children below that of the welfare of an insect. In fact, it is worse than that. It is not the welfare of an insect that is in question. It is the welfare of the habitat that may be home to an insect someday. The Lake Elsinore Unified School District has the land, the plans approved and the money allocated to build the Ronald Reagan Elementary School. The only thing it doesn't have is the approval of Jane Hendron and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fish and Wildlife conducted a survey of the 13-acre site between Clinton Keith and Bundy Canyon roads, but found no endangered insects. Hendron said "We don't know if there's Quino butterfly on that site or not." "It's a question of having a greater workload than what we have staff available to do" she added. I guess that's what portable classrooms are for, to stuff children into portable classrooms because federal government employees are overworked. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sure must have a very broad definition of habitat. Apparently habitat doesn't in fact have to actually house endangered species, it just has to look like it should and that is good enough for them and bad enough for the children. The children go into double sessions or overcrowded portable classrooms because the $15 million new school site looks like it might be habitat for insects....Ringling Brothers’ Circus Claims to Promote Conservation It may sound like an unusual pairing—protecting endangered species by putting them in the circus—but Ringling has become an actor in this new arena. In 1995, Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s corporate parent (which also owns the Disney on Ice and Siegfried and Roy shows), established the Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC), a $5 million, 200-acre Asian elephant breeding and research facility in Polk City, Florida. Since 1992, when Ringling began a breeding program, 15 elephants have been born, more than anywhere else in North America, including zoos....Pearce says forests must be thinned Regardless, real danger exists in the Lincoln National Forest, in the Sacramento Mountains of Otero County. To help address it, Pearce supported the Healthy Forests Act, passed in late 2003, which funds dense-forest cleanup, especially abutting communities. “We absolutely have to start thinning,” Pearce says, pointing out an equally large hurdle may be convincing bureaucratic decision makers to act. Wildfire is such a threat, he says, because “the fuel load has been building for years.” In the Lincoln, that is partly attributable to the Endangered Species Act. In 1993, the Mexican spotted owl was listed as endangered, virtually shutting down logging. Yet since “the last 20 years have been wet” years, he says, the danger was not as immediately evident as it has escalated to, in 2004. “The explosive elements (dryness, overgrowth) have been pulled together in this period, and our lifetime,” Pearce says....El Camino Real back on historic track U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio vowed Thursday to designate the oldest highway in Texas as a national historic trail, hoping to end an ordeal that has dragged on for more than five years. This time the designation would apply only to public lands and wherever private property owners consent. "As far as I know, no other trails bill has gone this far to protect private property rights," said Rodriguez, a Democrat. The last version of the bill passed the House in 2001, but failed in the Senate. Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has voiced concerns in the past, will support the new bill as long as landowners can opt in or out, a spokesman said. "She's just trying to do it in a way that respects private property rights," said Kevin Schweers, in Hutchison's Washington office....Hoyer seeks probe into Park Service A congressman yesterday demanded that the Interior Department investigate "unauthorized leaks" that he said resulted in a report in The Washington Times about lapses in national security and the firing of U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers. U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic whip, said the so-called leaks were "unacceptable" and suggested that the story was printed to influence the outcome of an appeal by Chief Chambers to save her job....Transcript of Al Gore's Jan 15 Speech on Environment In a speech co-sponsored by MoveOn.org and Environment2004, former Vice President Al Gore issued a powerful indictment of the Bush administration's assault on the environment. Gore also criticized the administration's refusal to address global warming, linking the issue to U.S. national security. Gore said that the President is choosing to help his coal- and oil-company supporters rather than advance modern technologies that can affordably solve this critical problem....Bush administration sees ethanol, methanol as products of forest thinning The Bush administration said Thursday it hopes turning small trees and brush into ethanol, methanol and other energy products will eventually help pay for thinning national forests to reduce the danger of wildfire. Paying for thinning 28 million acres of Western forests considered at high risk for wildfire has been a problem, because the small trees and brush that need to be removed aren't big enough for traditional lumber. Thinning costs between $250 and $1,000 an acre. Many of the forests are too overstocked to use the cheapest method, prescribed fire, without removing small trees and brush first. Harvesting larger trees to pay for the work leads to lawsuits from conservationists....Pentagon Appeals to White House on Pollution Limits The Defense Department, having won exemptions from three major environmental laws in the last two years, now is seeking to be excused from three more. Requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act already do not apply to the Pentagon. Now it wants exemptions from the Clean Air Act and two toxic waste laws, which Congress has refused to grant in each of the past two years....Cattle tuberculosis found in Central Texas herd A herd of dairy cattle in Central Texas has tested positive for cattle tuberculosis, state officials said. The infection at a Hamilton County dairy is the first discovered through a statewide testing program launched in November, the Texas Animal Health Commission said in a Thursday statement. Officials are trying to determine how the herd was infected and if the infection has spread to other herds. Tuberculosis is highly contagious among cattle, causing abscesses and leading to death, but it cannot be spread to humans. All infected animals in a herd must be killed....Mutton bustin’ offers sheepish grins for all But Miller also deals in mutton — sheep riding for the little ones. That’s right — sheep riding. Otherwise known as mutton bustin’. Mutton bustin’ allows the youngsters to imitate the big boys on the big beef. Instead of a bull, they ride a 100-pound sheep. It’s kind of like T-ball for the bull riding crowd....Meyer, Freudenthal seek $1M for bucking bronc lawsuit Secretary of State Joe Meyer and Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday to pony up $1 million so the state can sue a Texas organization for using Wyoming's trademarked bucking-horse-and-rider logo. The Texas Stampede, which stages concerts and professional rodeos to benefit children at two Dallas hospitals, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office a few months ago for ownership of the logo. The Texas Stampede has been using a bucking horse and rider since its inception in 2001. While the Texas Stampede logo faces left instead of right, both symbols show a cowboy holding his hat overhead atop a bronc with its back arched and rear hooves lifted. "It's important because, in a sense, Wyoming's like any other business. You end up with marketing money invested in certain kinds of trademarks and identifiable logos," Freudenthal said before the meeting....
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Alaska Region begins national Forest Service pilot for performance accountability The Forest Service announced today that a Texas consulting firm had been hired to guide its Alaska Region as it begins a pilot program to shift to performance-based accountability. Weidner Consulting from Austin, Texas, has been retained to assist in forming a "Credibility through Accountability" system for the Region here. The Alaska Region performance accountability system will serve as the pilot in the Forest Service's national performance accountability system. The national system is being developed in response to the General Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget’s increased focus on greater accountability and customer-based results for federal agencies. The Forest Service presently uses a budget-driven accountability system....Forester says delays in logging could ruin wildfire salvage plan A leading expert on salvage logging says he doubts much of the charred timber from the 2002 Biscuit Fire in southern Oregon will ever be cut because decay has made recovering the trees uneconomical. Oregon State University forestry professor John Sessions had calculated that rapid salvage logging could earn enough to pay for both the costs of fighting the blaze and replanting hillsides. The Siskiyou National Forest used his analysis to boost its proposed cutting more than fivefold. But the federal process for mounting logging operations could take until the summer to complete. And Sessions told more than 150 people at a forum in Eugene this week that the burned timber deteriorates so quickly 40 percent will be worthless to sawmills by this summer.... SUV Owners of America Call on Attorney General Ashcroft To Take Action Against Escalating Domestic Eco-Terrorism Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America (SUVOA) today called on Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to step up intelligence and federal enforcement action against The Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a militant environmental group, that today defiantly took responsibility for destroying sport utility vehicles (SUVs) at a Santa Fe, NM Land Rover dealership, and U.S. Forest Service construction equipment. The group this week released a list claiming responsibility for 75 such acts of domestic terrorism and claimed responsibility for some 75 other domestic terrorist acts around the country. To date, SUVs have been destroyed at dealerships in California, Texas and Virginia, in addition to the latest incident in New Mexico. On its Web site, the group boasts of causing upward of $55 million in damages for acts of terrorism....Another contractor hired for horse roundup in Carson National Forest The U.S. Forest Service has hired another contractor to try to round up wild horses in the Carson National Forest. Officials hired Mount Taylor Mustangs on Monday. The contractor has 60 days to gather 30 wild horses in the Jarita Mesa Wild Horse Territory. Officials say the contractor plans to use salt as bait to lure the horses into pens set up where the horses frequent. The previous contractor failed to capture any horses before calling it quits earlier this month....Fire review’s omissions questioned U.S. Forest Service officials are considering reinserting some of the many pieces of information blacked out in the official report investigating the deaths of Idaho wildland firefighters Jeff Allen and Shane Heath in July. The 80-page report, issued by the Forest Service Monday, had all of the names of people involved and several blocks of text edited out (redacted) by federal Freedom of Information Act officials, who cited privacy concerns. The redactions make it almost impossible to tell who made which decisions that led to the deaths of Allen and Heath or to follow the narrative of the chain of events that led to the fatal accident July 22....Clock ticks on York transfer When York was founded 138 years ago, people weren't too particular about some of the property lines. Miners would stake their claims with definitions as vague as "running from the toe of the hillside to the toe of the other hillside," according to York resident and historian David Ray Olson. Mining claims often were of irregular sizes, and boundaries didn't necessarily abut. In addition, no one bothered to claim the property on which the cemetery was established in the 1860s — "who's going to claim a cemetery," Olson questioned rhetorically — or on the property where the first schoolhouse was erected. "The people who lived here then worried more about the value of the minerals; no one enforced boundaries," Olson noted. But after the formation of the United States Forest Service in 1905, and as houses were built and sold on those old mining claims, the boundaries took on more significance as the federal government took ownership of unclaimed lands in the area....Proposed trail restrictions create controversy The U.S. Forest Service appears to have stirred a hornet's nest with proposed restrictions on use of off-road vehicles, "but that's good," according to Rick Lint. Lint, ranger for the Calcasieu District of Kisatchie National Forest, said a gathering of forest users in the district office parking lot earlier in the week to "protest" the proposed rule was a positive response rather than a negative one. The group of about 60 hunters and sportsmen showed up at the urging of Robert "Boo" Maddox IV, who complained the rule would ban four-wheelers from the 184,000 acres in the Calcasieu District. Maddox has called a public meeting at his shop on Ward Road near Cotile Lake at 6 p.m. Saturday to discuss the proposed rule and to offer an organized response to the Forest Service before the public comment period is closed Jan. 30....Freudenthal blasts U.S. wolf decision Election-year politics in the Bush administration fueled a federal decision earlier this week to reject Wyoming's plan for managing wolves, Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Thursday. During a press conference, Freudenthal said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave conflicting feedback on Wyoming's proposal - first appearing to support it while it was being developed in the Legislature and then panning it on Tuesday. "They could have said last year that this statute was fundamentally flawed," the governor said. He said he believes the Bush administration ultimately turned down Wyoming's plan in an effort to shore up support on environmental issues as the 2004 election looms. "It is a case where they decided to listen to certain kinds of pro-wolf environmentalists more significantly than they listened to a Western interest like Wyoming," Freudenthal said. "The lash of federal servitude has fallen across our back and I don't like it."....Editorial: Wyoming stymies wolf delisting Federal rejection of Wyoming's plan means that federal rules will continue to apply for all three states — and that means the states will have no way to hold the wolf population down. Wyoming stockgrowers are urging the state to stand firm against the feds, and treat wolves as expendable predators rather than a wildlife resource to be maintained. We hope they change their minds. That would in their best interest — and in Montana and Idaho's best interest as well....Conservationists warn Corps about 2004 Missouri River Operations Conservationists served notice to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers yesterday that it must operate its Missouri River dams in accordance with a "Biological Opinion" issued in 2000 -- rather than an amended opinion issued in December of 2003 -- to avoid another lawsuit over its operations this summer. After reviewing the amended opinion, conservationists have concluded it would lead to continued decline of the Missouri's native fish and wildlife and therefore does not pass muster as a matter of law. The groups also believe the amendment is likely to prolong the dispute over management of the river than to resolve it....Column: When insects take priority Our school enrollment is spiking, we have numerous schools from elementary, middle schools and high schools all being planned to accommodate this increasing school enrollment. Yet our federal government puts education and the welfare of children below that of the welfare of an insect. In fact, it is worse than that. It is not the welfare of an insect that is in question. It is the welfare of the habitat that may be home to an insect someday. The Lake Elsinore Unified School District has the land, the plans approved and the money allocated to build the Ronald Reagan Elementary School. The only thing it doesn't have is the approval of Jane Hendron and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fish and Wildlife conducted a survey of the 13-acre site between Clinton Keith and Bundy Canyon roads, but found no endangered insects. Hendron said "We don't know if there's Quino butterfly on that site or not." "It's a question of having a greater workload than what we have staff available to do" she added. I guess that's what portable classrooms are for, to stuff children into portable classrooms because federal government employees are overworked. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sure must have a very broad definition of habitat. Apparently habitat doesn't in fact have to actually house endangered species, it just has to look like it should and that is good enough for them and bad enough for the children. The children go into double sessions or overcrowded portable classrooms because the $15 million new school site looks like it might be habitat for insects....Ringling Brothers’ Circus Claims to Promote Conservation It may sound like an unusual pairing—protecting endangered species by putting them in the circus—but Ringling has become an actor in this new arena. In 1995, Feld Entertainment, Ringling’s corporate parent (which also owns the Disney on Ice and Siegfried and Roy shows), established the Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC), a $5 million, 200-acre Asian elephant breeding and research facility in Polk City, Florida. Since 1992, when Ringling began a breeding program, 15 elephants have been born, more than anywhere else in North America, including zoos....Pearce says forests must be thinned Regardless, real danger exists in the Lincoln National Forest, in the Sacramento Mountains of Otero County. To help address it, Pearce supported the Healthy Forests Act, passed in late 2003, which funds dense-forest cleanup, especially abutting communities. “We absolutely have to start thinning,” Pearce says, pointing out an equally large hurdle may be convincing bureaucratic decision makers to act. Wildfire is such a threat, he says, because “the fuel load has been building for years.” In the Lincoln, that is partly attributable to the Endangered Species Act. In 1993, the Mexican spotted owl was listed as endangered, virtually shutting down logging. Yet since “the last 20 years have been wet” years, he says, the danger was not as immediately evident as it has escalated to, in 2004. “The explosive elements (dryness, overgrowth) have been pulled together in this period, and our lifetime,” Pearce says....El Camino Real back on historic track U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of San Antonio vowed Thursday to designate the oldest highway in Texas as a national historic trail, hoping to end an ordeal that has dragged on for more than five years. This time the designation would apply only to public lands and wherever private property owners consent. "As far as I know, no other trails bill has gone this far to protect private property rights," said Rodriguez, a Democrat. The last version of the bill passed the House in 2001, but failed in the Senate. Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has voiced concerns in the past, will support the new bill as long as landowners can opt in or out, a spokesman said. "She's just trying to do it in a way that respects private property rights," said Kevin Schweers, in Hutchison's Washington office....Hoyer seeks probe into Park Service A congressman yesterday demanded that the Interior Department investigate "unauthorized leaks" that he said resulted in a report in The Washington Times about lapses in national security and the firing of U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers. U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic whip, said the so-called leaks were "unacceptable" and suggested that the story was printed to influence the outcome of an appeal by Chief Chambers to save her job....Transcript of Al Gore's Jan 15 Speech on Environment In a speech co-sponsored by MoveOn.org and Environment2004, former Vice President Al Gore issued a powerful indictment of the Bush administration's assault on the environment. Gore also criticized the administration's refusal to address global warming, linking the issue to U.S. national security. Gore said that the President is choosing to help his coal- and oil-company supporters rather than advance modern technologies that can affordably solve this critical problem....Bush administration sees ethanol, methanol as products of forest thinning The Bush administration said Thursday it hopes turning small trees and brush into ethanol, methanol and other energy products will eventually help pay for thinning national forests to reduce the danger of wildfire. Paying for thinning 28 million acres of Western forests considered at high risk for wildfire has been a problem, because the small trees and brush that need to be removed aren't big enough for traditional lumber. Thinning costs between $250 and $1,000 an acre. Many of the forests are too overstocked to use the cheapest method, prescribed fire, without removing small trees and brush first. Harvesting larger trees to pay for the work leads to lawsuits from conservationists....Pentagon Appeals to White House on Pollution Limits The Defense Department, having won exemptions from three major environmental laws in the last two years, now is seeking to be excused from three more. Requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act already do not apply to the Pentagon. Now it wants exemptions from the Clean Air Act and two toxic waste laws, which Congress has refused to grant in each of the past two years....Cattle tuberculosis found in Central Texas herd A herd of dairy cattle in Central Texas has tested positive for cattle tuberculosis, state officials said. The infection at a Hamilton County dairy is the first discovered through a statewide testing program launched in November, the Texas Animal Health Commission said in a Thursday statement. Officials are trying to determine how the herd was infected and if the infection has spread to other herds. Tuberculosis is highly contagious among cattle, causing abscesses and leading to death, but it cannot be spread to humans. All infected animals in a herd must be killed....Mutton bustin’ offers sheepish grins for all But Miller also deals in mutton — sheep riding for the little ones. That’s right — sheep riding. Otherwise known as mutton bustin’. Mutton bustin’ allows the youngsters to imitate the big boys on the big beef. Instead of a bull, they ride a 100-pound sheep. It’s kind of like T-ball for the bull riding crowd....Meyer, Freudenthal seek $1M for bucking bronc lawsuit Secretary of State Joe Meyer and Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the Joint Appropriations Committee on Thursday to pony up $1 million so the state can sue a Texas organization for using Wyoming's trademarked bucking-horse-and-rider logo. The Texas Stampede, which stages concerts and professional rodeos to benefit children at two Dallas hospitals, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office a few months ago for ownership of the logo. The Texas Stampede has been using a bucking horse and rider since its inception in 2001. While the Texas Stampede logo faces left instead of right, both symbols show a cowboy holding his hat overhead atop a bronc with its back arched and rear hooves lifted. "It's important because, in a sense, Wyoming's like any other business. You end up with marketing money invested in certain kinds of trademarks and identifiable logos," Freudenthal said before the meeting....
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MAD COW NEWS
Man dies of CJD after growth treatment as a boy A father has died aged 33 of the human form of mad cow disease after being given hormones as a boy of nine to cure his stunted growth. The hormones were harvested from human corpses. It was not until Barry Metcalf was 22 that he was told they had come from a batch contaminated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His condition was diagnosed at the beginning of last year and within 11 months he was dead....Senators Enzi and Daschle call for country-of-origin meat labels in wake of mad-cow case President Bush should use emergency regulations to direct the Agriculture Department to adopt country-of-origin meat labeling in the wake of the Washington state mad cow case, Sens. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., say. The senators requested the move Thursday in a letter to the president. The Washington case, which involved a cow born in Canada, "has cast an unfair shadow of uncertainty over the American food industry," the senators wrote. They want rules directing meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to be labeled as "100 percent U.S. beef.".... Consumer groups want more cattle testing Consumer and health groups asked Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Thursday to immediately increase testing of cattle for mad cow disease and establish a mandatory animal identification system for tracking cows and beef cattle. In a meeting with Veneman, the consumer groups said testing for mad cow should include animals as young as 20 months. USDA has said it would focus on animals 30 months and older since its long incubation period — four to five years — means mad cow typically doesn't show up in younger animals. But representatives from the advocacy groups that met with her Thursday — including the American Public Health Association, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Government Accountability Project and Public Citizen — complained the beef industry still has too great a role in the project....U.S. and Canadian officials to meet on mad cow and cattle ban Agriculture Minister Bob Speller says he expects to find out Friday how close U.S. officials are to agreeing to lift their ban on Canadian cattle. But Speller, who's scheduled to meet with both his American and Mexican counterparts, doesn't expect any exact date to emerge from the talks. "Hopefully what I'll get out of the meeting is a commitment to move forward on a process towards opening the border," said Speller. "We've moved lockstep on the science . . . We need that border open." The Canada-U.S. cattle market is highly integrated, with some seven million cows crossing the border in the last five years. Speller, who just returned from Japan and South Korea, said it's hard to sell them on taking Canadian beef products when Canada and the U.S. aren't buying each other's cattle....Mad cow hurting industry, ranchers tell lawmakers The widespread ban on U.S. beef exports because of the mad cow scare is beginning to hurt Colorado cattlemen. Officials with the Colorado Beef Council delivered the sobering news to state lawmakers today even as they said beef sales remain strong. Domestic demand for beef has remained strong enough to push live cattle prices back up to $82 per hundred pounds, said Bob Rolston, a cattle buyer for Maverick Ranch Natural Beef. Prices had been at about $90 last month but the discovery of mad cow sent them tumbling by about $20....FDA Places Six Canadian Feed Plants on Import Alert Since the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has placed six Canadian animal feed plants on "import alert" after finding prohibited meat material in its shipments, a spokeswoman said on Thursday. Canadian feed plants owned by Bunge Ltd., Louis Dreyfus, and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool were among those listed by the FDA that must test all feed shipments bound for the United States for traces of animal tissue, the FDA said....More talks eyed on beef import ban Japanese and U.S. farm chiefs agreed Thursday to hold further talks aimed at resuming Japanese imports of U.S. beef as soon as possible, beginning with Washington's plan to dispatch a negotiating team to Tokyo next week. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman reached the agreement during telephone talks in the morning, Japanese government officials said. Details of the planned U.S. delegation were not unveiled, the officials said. After the talks, however, Kamei told reporters that it will be difficult for Japan to lift the import ban at an early date, saying the current U.S. measures to ensure the safety of beef products fall short of Japan's safety standards. In the talks, Kamei told Veneman that in order to lift the import ban, Japanese consumers must be reassured of the safety of U.S. beef. He also briefed her on Japan's safety measures, such as testing all cattle in the country for mad cow disease, and urged the U.S. to take similar steps, according to the officials....USDA quietly declares emergency in Washington state The U.S. Department of Agriculture has quietly declared an "extraordinary emergency" because of the discovery of a Holstein infected with mad cow disease in Washington state - a move that will give federal officials additional authority to quarantine herds and destroy cattle. Agriculture Department officials said the declaration will also make additional funding available for their ongoing investigation and to reimburse farmers for animals that have been destroyed. The declaration was published Monday in the Federal Register, a daily publication of all rules, regulations and notices issued by the federal government....Australian beef prices up 60 percent in Tokyo The United States supplied one third of Japan's beef, but since the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in America, Tokyo has stopped all US beef imports. Shops and restaurants are warning of serious beef shortages. The result has been a 60 per cent increase in the wholesale price of Australian beef, raising fears the soaring price will make the product less palatable in Australia's most valuable market....Italy reports two new cases of mad cow disease Two Italian cows from separate breeding farms in northern Italy have tested positive for mad cow disease - the first cases detected this year, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The country's total is now up to 117 cases, the ministry said. The disease was confirmed by testing done at a Turin zoological institute that serves as the national control centre for the disease. Italy detected its first case in 2001, after the European Union ordered mandatory tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter. Fifty cows tested positive in 2001, 36 in 2002, and 29 in 2003....Editorial: The Spider At The Center Of The Mad-Cow Web While Luddite intellectual guru Jeremy Rifkin has stayed on the sidelines of the recent mad-cow debate, three of his former employees -- Ronnie Cummins, John Stauber, and Howard Lyman -- have taken the lead in fanning the flames of panic. This trio of scaremongers has a long-standing, Rifkin-inspired "beef" with beef. For them, the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease was simply an opportunity to score PR victories on behalf of their anti-corporate, anti-technology, and animal-rights ideology. Along with his disciples, Rifkin seeks to impose his fringe politics on the dinner plate. He argues that "eating is the ultimate political act" -- taste, value and food safety be damned. Rifkin's campaign against steak and hamburgers began in 1992 with his book, Beyond Beef. He described beef as a "new form of human evil" and a "malevolent force in the world." He falsely blamed it for everything from hunger to global warming to spousal abuse, and even claimed that "a person is committing an evil act by growing feed for cattle or consuming a hamburger."....Mad cow as bioterrorism? Scientists worry that US gov't classification of BSE prions as 'select agents' could hinder research As public interest in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) grows in the United States, strict controls on who is allowed to study could needlessly slow US research on the disease, contend some prion scientists. That's because as part of the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act that recently took effect, BSE prions are considered “select agents” that require special security arrangements, including background checks on anyone who may have access to this material in the lab. The measure, which calls for similar precautions on handling some 80 other select agents, is one of an increasing number of safeguards intended to keep potentially dangerous biological materials out of terrorist hands. However, the background checks and inspections necessary have slowed down certification of labs....UPI Exclusive: No mad cow tests in Wash. Federal agriculture officials did not test any commercial cattle for mad cow disease through the first seven months of 2003 in Washington state -- where the first U.S. case of the disease was detected last month -- according to records obtained by United Press International. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's records of mad cow screenings, conducted on 35,000 animals between 2001 to 2003, also reveal no animals were tested for the past two years at Vern's Moses Lake Meats, the Washington slaughterhouse where the mad cow case was first detected. In addition, no mad cow tests were conducted during the two-year period at any of the six federally registered slaughterhouses in Washington state. This includes Washington's biggest slaughterhouse, Washington Beef in Toppenish -- the 17th largest in the country, which slaughters 290,000 head per year -- and two facilities in Pasco that belong to Tyson, the largest beef slaughtering company in the United States....Big Beef’s Dirty War: Meat industry has resisted cleaning up its act for decades Nonetheless, in some ways the department has strikingly little power over the meat industry compared to that of other government agencies. If it discovers a batch of potentially dangerous meat, the agency cannot order it recalled from supermarket shelves the way, say, toys judged to be choking hazards can be ordered recalled. The USDA can only ask the companies involved to voluntarily recall their tainted product. Most such meat never comes back. According to an analysis of USDA data by the Detroit Free Press, from 1998 through 2000 nearly 109 million pounds of meat and meat products were recalled in the United States, but only 24 percent of that meat was ever recovered. Nor can the USDA even tell consumers which stores might have meat subject to recall sitting on their shelves. Such information is considered the meatpacking companies’ proprietary business information. That secrecy can extend to an appalling degree. In 1999, IBP, a major meatpacking company, recalled 10,000 pounds of ground beef because it was shot through with bits of glass; but neither the company nor the USDA would tell the public which stores had received the extra-crunchy beef....Cowgirls kick off 'Thanks Alberta' campaign The province's best-known cowgirls are tipping their hats to Albertans for their support during the current mad cow crisis. "It's incredible the support we've seen," said Erin Butters, who ranches with her family near Cochrane. Butters, 25, Lenore McLean of High River, and Patti Scott of Sundre were on hand in Calgary yesterday to kick off Alberta Beef's "Thanks Alberta" campaign. Under the program the cattle industry will send postcards to more than a million households in the province to thank consumers for buying beef....Mad cow hits ranchers: Scare has driven down selling price of certain cattle Van Haur sold 6-year-old mother cows in December for $600 each. Today, they'd bring $450 each or less. Using the calculator on his cell phone, he figures his feeder cattle at his uncle's lot in Nebraska that brought $1,100 in early December would sell for $950 to $970 today. He figures he's lucky. "The guys that held off selling until January for tax reasons are sweating," he said. The price swing hasn't hit the breeder cattle market. Van Haur bought a bull for breeding for $5,000 at the stock show, about what he would have paid in December....
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Man dies of CJD after growth treatment as a boy A father has died aged 33 of the human form of mad cow disease after being given hormones as a boy of nine to cure his stunted growth. The hormones were harvested from human corpses. It was not until Barry Metcalf was 22 that he was told they had come from a batch contaminated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His condition was diagnosed at the beginning of last year and within 11 months he was dead....Senators Enzi and Daschle call for country-of-origin meat labels in wake of mad-cow case President Bush should use emergency regulations to direct the Agriculture Department to adopt country-of-origin meat labeling in the wake of the Washington state mad cow case, Sens. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., say. The senators requested the move Thursday in a letter to the president. The Washington case, which involved a cow born in Canada, "has cast an unfair shadow of uncertainty over the American food industry," the senators wrote. They want rules directing meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United States to be labeled as "100 percent U.S. beef.".... Consumer groups want more cattle testing Consumer and health groups asked Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Thursday to immediately increase testing of cattle for mad cow disease and establish a mandatory animal identification system for tracking cows and beef cattle. In a meeting with Veneman, the consumer groups said testing for mad cow should include animals as young as 20 months. USDA has said it would focus on animals 30 months and older since its long incubation period — four to five years — means mad cow typically doesn't show up in younger animals. But representatives from the advocacy groups that met with her Thursday — including the American Public Health Association, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Government Accountability Project and Public Citizen — complained the beef industry still has too great a role in the project....U.S. and Canadian officials to meet on mad cow and cattle ban Agriculture Minister Bob Speller says he expects to find out Friday how close U.S. officials are to agreeing to lift their ban on Canadian cattle. But Speller, who's scheduled to meet with both his American and Mexican counterparts, doesn't expect any exact date to emerge from the talks. "Hopefully what I'll get out of the meeting is a commitment to move forward on a process towards opening the border," said Speller. "We've moved lockstep on the science . . . We need that border open." The Canada-U.S. cattle market is highly integrated, with some seven million cows crossing the border in the last five years. Speller, who just returned from Japan and South Korea, said it's hard to sell them on taking Canadian beef products when Canada and the U.S. aren't buying each other's cattle....Mad cow hurting industry, ranchers tell lawmakers The widespread ban on U.S. beef exports because of the mad cow scare is beginning to hurt Colorado cattlemen. Officials with the Colorado Beef Council delivered the sobering news to state lawmakers today even as they said beef sales remain strong. Domestic demand for beef has remained strong enough to push live cattle prices back up to $82 per hundred pounds, said Bob Rolston, a cattle buyer for Maverick Ranch Natural Beef. Prices had been at about $90 last month but the discovery of mad cow sent them tumbling by about $20....FDA Places Six Canadian Feed Plants on Import Alert Since the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has placed six Canadian animal feed plants on "import alert" after finding prohibited meat material in its shipments, a spokeswoman said on Thursday. Canadian feed plants owned by Bunge Ltd., Louis Dreyfus, and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool were among those listed by the FDA that must test all feed shipments bound for the United States for traces of animal tissue, the FDA said....More talks eyed on beef import ban Japanese and U.S. farm chiefs agreed Thursday to hold further talks aimed at resuming Japanese imports of U.S. beef as soon as possible, beginning with Washington's plan to dispatch a negotiating team to Tokyo next week. Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman reached the agreement during telephone talks in the morning, Japanese government officials said. Details of the planned U.S. delegation were not unveiled, the officials said. After the talks, however, Kamei told reporters that it will be difficult for Japan to lift the import ban at an early date, saying the current U.S. measures to ensure the safety of beef products fall short of Japan's safety standards. In the talks, Kamei told Veneman that in order to lift the import ban, Japanese consumers must be reassured of the safety of U.S. beef. He also briefed her on Japan's safety measures, such as testing all cattle in the country for mad cow disease, and urged the U.S. to take similar steps, according to the officials....USDA quietly declares emergency in Washington state The U.S. Department of Agriculture has quietly declared an "extraordinary emergency" because of the discovery of a Holstein infected with mad cow disease in Washington state - a move that will give federal officials additional authority to quarantine herds and destroy cattle. Agriculture Department officials said the declaration will also make additional funding available for their ongoing investigation and to reimburse farmers for animals that have been destroyed. The declaration was published Monday in the Federal Register, a daily publication of all rules, regulations and notices issued by the federal government....Australian beef prices up 60 percent in Tokyo The United States supplied one third of Japan's beef, but since the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in America, Tokyo has stopped all US beef imports. Shops and restaurants are warning of serious beef shortages. The result has been a 60 per cent increase in the wholesale price of Australian beef, raising fears the soaring price will make the product less palatable in Australia's most valuable market....Italy reports two new cases of mad cow disease Two Italian cows from separate breeding farms in northern Italy have tested positive for mad cow disease - the first cases detected this year, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The country's total is now up to 117 cases, the ministry said. The disease was confirmed by testing done at a Turin zoological institute that serves as the national control centre for the disease. Italy detected its first case in 2001, after the European Union ordered mandatory tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter. Fifty cows tested positive in 2001, 36 in 2002, and 29 in 2003....Editorial: The Spider At The Center Of The Mad-Cow Web While Luddite intellectual guru Jeremy Rifkin has stayed on the sidelines of the recent mad-cow debate, three of his former employees -- Ronnie Cummins, John Stauber, and Howard Lyman -- have taken the lead in fanning the flames of panic. This trio of scaremongers has a long-standing, Rifkin-inspired "beef" with beef. For them, the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease was simply an opportunity to score PR victories on behalf of their anti-corporate, anti-technology, and animal-rights ideology. Along with his disciples, Rifkin seeks to impose his fringe politics on the dinner plate. He argues that "eating is the ultimate political act" -- taste, value and food safety be damned. Rifkin's campaign against steak and hamburgers began in 1992 with his book, Beyond Beef. He described beef as a "new form of human evil" and a "malevolent force in the world." He falsely blamed it for everything from hunger to global warming to spousal abuse, and even claimed that "a person is committing an evil act by growing feed for cattle or consuming a hamburger."....Mad cow as bioterrorism? Scientists worry that US gov't classification of BSE prions as 'select agents' could hinder research As public interest in bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) grows in the United States, strict controls on who is allowed to study could needlessly slow US research on the disease, contend some prion scientists. That's because as part of the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act that recently took effect, BSE prions are considered “select agents” that require special security arrangements, including background checks on anyone who may have access to this material in the lab. The measure, which calls for similar precautions on handling some 80 other select agents, is one of an increasing number of safeguards intended to keep potentially dangerous biological materials out of terrorist hands. However, the background checks and inspections necessary have slowed down certification of labs....UPI Exclusive: No mad cow tests in Wash. Federal agriculture officials did not test any commercial cattle for mad cow disease through the first seven months of 2003 in Washington state -- where the first U.S. case of the disease was detected last month -- according to records obtained by United Press International. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's records of mad cow screenings, conducted on 35,000 animals between 2001 to 2003, also reveal no animals were tested for the past two years at Vern's Moses Lake Meats, the Washington slaughterhouse where the mad cow case was first detected. In addition, no mad cow tests were conducted during the two-year period at any of the six federally registered slaughterhouses in Washington state. This includes Washington's biggest slaughterhouse, Washington Beef in Toppenish -- the 17th largest in the country, which slaughters 290,000 head per year -- and two facilities in Pasco that belong to Tyson, the largest beef slaughtering company in the United States....Big Beef’s Dirty War: Meat industry has resisted cleaning up its act for decades Nonetheless, in some ways the department has strikingly little power over the meat industry compared to that of other government agencies. If it discovers a batch of potentially dangerous meat, the agency cannot order it recalled from supermarket shelves the way, say, toys judged to be choking hazards can be ordered recalled. The USDA can only ask the companies involved to voluntarily recall their tainted product. Most such meat never comes back. According to an analysis of USDA data by the Detroit Free Press, from 1998 through 2000 nearly 109 million pounds of meat and meat products were recalled in the United States, but only 24 percent of that meat was ever recovered. Nor can the USDA even tell consumers which stores might have meat subject to recall sitting on their shelves. Such information is considered the meatpacking companies’ proprietary business information. That secrecy can extend to an appalling degree. In 1999, IBP, a major meatpacking company, recalled 10,000 pounds of ground beef because it was shot through with bits of glass; but neither the company nor the USDA would tell the public which stores had received the extra-crunchy beef....Cowgirls kick off 'Thanks Alberta' campaign The province's best-known cowgirls are tipping their hats to Albertans for their support during the current mad cow crisis. "It's incredible the support we've seen," said Erin Butters, who ranches with her family near Cochrane. Butters, 25, Lenore McLean of High River, and Patti Scott of Sundre were on hand in Calgary yesterday to kick off Alberta Beef's "Thanks Alberta" campaign. Under the program the cattle industry will send postcards to more than a million households in the province to thank consumers for buying beef....Mad cow hits ranchers: Scare has driven down selling price of certain cattle Van Haur sold 6-year-old mother cows in December for $600 each. Today, they'd bring $450 each or less. Using the calculator on his cell phone, he figures his feeder cattle at his uncle's lot in Nebraska that brought $1,100 in early December would sell for $950 to $970 today. He figures he's lucky. "The guys that held off selling until January for tax reasons are sweating," he said. The price swing hasn't hit the breeder cattle market. Van Haur bought a bull for breeding for $5,000 at the stock show, about what he would have paid in December....
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Wednesday, January 14, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Federal officials draft Canada lynx impact statement Federal officials have finished drafting a study that says how 18 national forest land-use plans in the northern Rockies, including the Bitterroot's, could be amended to protect the threatened Canada lynx. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management draft environmental impact statement for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment proposal differs from an earlier proposal, and includes changes in how officials could address some high-elevation timber thinning and winter recreation. The agencies' preferred alternative E includes proposed restrictions on pre-commercial thinning of timber in snowshoe hare habitat, but it makes exceptions for "fuel reduction" projects intended to reduce fire danger, said Jon Haber, a Forest Service project manager for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment in Missoula. Also a change from an earlier proposal is that while the agencies' preferred option would discourage any net increase in "over-the-snow trails" in lynx habitat, primarily new groomed trails used by snowmobiles and compacted on a regular basis, Haber said, it would not prohibit new ones....Sitka residents rally against roadless rule repeal About 100 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Forest Service District Office on Wednesday morning to protest the Bush Administration's Dec. 23 decision to repeal the "roadless rule" on the Tongass National Forest. Holding blank signs and wearing white mouth gags to signify that opposition to the roadless rule repeal continues to go unheard, the protesters stood in the rain from about 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. as Forest Service employees arrived for work. Protesters held up a 15-foot banner that said, "Tongass BUSH-Whacked: Will of the People Ignored," and sang "This Land is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome."....Florida black bear won't be listed as threatened species Florida black bears have been found sleeping in truck beds in rural Collier County, rummaging through garbage cans and wandering through Golden Gate Estates neighborhoods. But one place they won't be found is on the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reaffirmed on Wednesday a 1998 decision to not list the Florida black bear as a threatened species. Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Fund for Animals challenged the 1998 decision. In 2001, a federal judge ordered the agency to reconsider. The results were published Wednesday in the Federal Register....Fed changes worry bombing range neighbors Bonnie Rader fought the military for years to clean up unexploded ammunition at a former Air Force bombing range in Aurora. "Bombing ranges have so many surprises and it's usually the homeowner who gets the surprise," said Rader, who lives near the former Lowry Gunnery and Bombing Range. "Little people like me can not make a difference without the state and environmental laws to help us." After two years of intense negotiation and a lawsuit, the state forced the Defense Department to develop an extensive cleanup plan for the 59,000-acre site near the Aurora Reservoir in southeast Arapahoe County. States could lose the power to enforce such environmental agreements if Congress approves legislation requested by the Pentagon. The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative would make military bases exempt from environmental laws that cover everything from hazardous waste, air quality and endangered species....Wyoming lawmakers say feds unclear on wolf plan Wyoming lawmakers say the federal government was vague on what was expected of the state during negotiations on removing wolves from federal protection, and they expressed surprise and hurt that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited flaws in the state plan as a reason for suspending the process. Lawmakers said they got mixed messages from the agency last year as they drafted the proposal for how Wyoming would manage wolf populations after the feds stepped aside. They noted that Wyoming's plan recently passed muster with several wildlife experts and wolf biologists. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said the federal government had indicated to him that Wyoming's plan was adequate. Gov. Dave Freudenthal added the decision was "based on little more than Potomac politics."....Valley farmers win in court over water loss In a major victory for California farmers, a federal judge has said the U.S. government must compensate a group of San Joaquin Valley growers for diverting some of their water to protect endangered fish. The ruling could tilt the balance between farmers and environmentalists in their endless battle over California's water supply -- and make federal officials hesitate to use the Endangered Species Act to take water from agriculture. "It makes the decision (to enforce the Endangered Species Act) harder because there's direct financial consequences up front," said Lester Snow, a Sacramento water consultant and former regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. "It's a sea change in the way they manage the Endangered Species Act." Under the ruling by Judge John Paul Wiese of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a group of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley must be paid about $26 million for water they didn't receive during droughtlike conditions between 1992 and 1994. The court handles claims against the federal government. The case arose when federal officials invoked the Endangered Species Act to reduce the amount of water being pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the vast farming operations of the San Joaquin Valley. The action was taken to protect two species of fish, the chinook salmon and Delta smelt, which were getting sucked into the government's giant water pumps and killed in ever-increasing numbers....Park police chief alleges systematic harassment National Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers was harassed for at least a year as she tried to reform her agency, and was eventually put on administrative leave after she filed a formal complaint against her immediate supervisor, her attorneys said Wednesday. Lawyers for the embattled chief said she and her top deputies faced an increasingly hostile work environment during the past year that included the scattering of nails under the tires of their vehicles, placement of used condoms on and around vehicles, computer hacking, and the pepper-spraying of office doors....Rehberg invites judge on snowmobile trip Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., has invited the Washington, D.C., judge who overturned the Bush administration's snowmobile plan to take a snowmobile trip with him through Yellowstone National Park. In a letter Wednesday to Judge Emmet Sullivan, Rehberg said he hoped the trip would show that snowmobiles are a "legitimate" form of transportation in Yellowstone. The tour also would give Sullivan a chance to talk with park officials and business owners who depend on snowmobile business in the winter. "While I strongly disagree with your decision for its potentially devastating effect on the economies of nearby gateway communities, I would nonetheless like to invite you to join me in West Yellowstone sometime over the remaining winter months, and take a snowmobile tour of Yellowstone," Rehberg wrote in his letter to the judge....S.D. aerial hunting law concerns coyote hunters The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission wants to give aerial hunters a better shot at coyotes by opening more than a million acres of public land in western South Dakota to nongovernment gunners. That's good news to ranchers who suffer livestock losses to the pesky predators. "The more help we get, the better it is because we're getting overrun by coyotes right now," Harding County rancher and aerial hunter Jerry Janvrin said Wednesday. But some sport hunters worry that highly effective aerial hunting will spoil their sport and could threaten the safety of recreational hunters using public land....Cougar attacks rising in southern Oregon Cougar attacks are becoming more common in southern Oregon, leading to more loss of livestock and threats to humans, biologists said. Just this week, cougars mauled three ewes on Roger Thalacker's 15-acre ranch in Eagle Point, puncturing the throat of one of the animals. The dying ewe is the seventh victim of a cougar attack in the last two years. And last week, a cougar near Williams killed an ostrich and some ducks. Also, last Wednesday in rural Ashland, a man shot and killed a cougar that appeared not to fear people, according to state biologists. Biologists say the conflict between cougars and humans is here to stay. Utah claims Juab road, Right-of-way request is state's first on U.S. land A lonely two-lane highway that winds through Juab County's West Desert is the first claim by state officials for right of way through federally managed lands. Known as the Weiss Highway to those few who travel it, the paved road extends west from Nephi to the Nevada border, providing access to ranchers who are scattered through western Juab County, County Commissioner William Howarth said. The road has existed for decades, at one time leading to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and has long been used by miners, law enforcement officers and outdoor recreators. Howarth was on hand for a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the Utah headquarters of the Utah Bureau of Land Management, where Gov. Olene Walker formally submitted a claim for the Weiss Highway to the BLM. The state could potentially submit thousands of claims for right of way to roads under the RS 2477 statute during coming years, and many of those roads are needed travel routes that should be protected, Howarth said....Pilot program may pummel prairie dogs Limited poisoning of prairie dogs on federal grasslands south of Badlands National Park could resume soon in a pilot program to provide relief for ranchers whose land is being overrun by prairie dogs from the nearby federal land. The pilot program is still in the planning stages, but state and federal officials hope to have it together by about March 1, Bill Perry, Wall District ranger on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, said Wednesday. Although Perry said the proposed pilot plan is not a "knee-jerk" reaction, his announcement comes after area ranchers complained in recent weeks to the Pennington County Commission that prairie dogs from federal lands were encroaching on their private ranches in Conata Basin, ruining rangeland for grazing....Illegal poison poses threat to other species Illegal poisoning of prairie dogs in Conata Basin may have killed some black-footed ferrets and is endangering other mammals and birds in the area, according to Bill Perry, Wall District ranger with Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The black-footed ferrets, reintroduced in Conata Basin in 1996, are doing well overall, but numbers fell by about one third in the area where illegal poison has been found on federal land east of the Conata Basin road, Perry said. "The rodenticide is killing the prairie dogs, and it is carried in their carcasses, and then it can kill any predators that eat the carcasses," Perry said.... Court Hears Arguments Over Nuclear Waste Dump Attorneys for the state of Nevada and environmental groups told a U.S. appellate court yesterday that federal agencies ignored science and law in deciding to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in a mountain outside Las Vegas. Taking up the Yucca Mountain dispute, which has raged for two decades, the panel of three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard federal government lawyers argue that the decision to create the dump for waste from the nation's nuclear reactors was based on sound reasoning. Nevada officials consider the federal court one of their last hopes of stopping the $58 billion project, located in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The panel is expected to issue its decision in late spring or summer, and attorneys on both sides said they would appeal to the full appellate court if they lose....Court Urged to Require EPA Role in Everglades Shift of Polluted Water A lawyer for an Everglades Indian tribe urged the Supreme Court yesterday to require South Florida's water managers to get federal approval before they shift water from the suburbs to protected wetlands, as the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could affect state water supply and flood-control practices across the nation. But Jeffrey P. Minear, a lawyer for the Justice Department, which supports the SFWMD, told the court that the pump is not covered by the Clean Water Act because it is merely moving polluted water around, not adding pollution to the water, and that "the costs would be very substantial" if permitting were required. The water district and its supporters -- which include not only the Bush administration, but also New York City and 11 western states -- say those costs would include a heavy new regulatory burden on states and cities that move vast amounts of agricultural and drinking water via aqueducts, pipes and reservoirs. The Indian tribe is backed by 14 states, mostly from the East, and by environmental groups....West Texas water export plan draws state scrutiny Thirsty cities far away from underground water supplies in West Texas make ranchers and El Paso community leaders nervous. The livelihood of rural Texas and El Paso's future water supply both could hinge on how state officials handle a private company's desires to export water from state land in far West Texas to distant communities. A Senate Select Committee on Water Policy will meet Feb. 3 in El Paso. The committee met for the first time Wednesday in an effort to refine state water policy that has been seven years in the making. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is considering a plan by a consortium of Midland-based investors, who want to lease 355,000 acres of state land in Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. The company, called Rio Nuevo Ltd., wants to export water from the land and sell it....New Test Scores Cattle Temperaments A livestock specialist at the University of Georgia has developed a scoring system that allows owners to assess the temperaments of cattle so they can breed calmer calves. Studies conducted in Australia, Colorado and elsewhere have shown that serene cattle gain weight faster and provide more tender meat than cranky cattle. Also, calves with poor dispositions can cause costly damage to equipment, fences and harm handlers, said Jerry Baker, a researcher at the university's Coastal Plain Experiment Station....Remaining cattle from brucellosis herd shipped to slaughter About 260 cattle from a western Wyoming ranch were sent to slaughter Wednesday, the latest step in federal and state efforts to prevent spread of brucellosis. "It wasn't the best," rancher Jerry Jensen said of his emotions in seeing the bulk of his family's herd leave in five cattle trucks. "I mean, you see four generations go down the road, and it wasn't our fault." All the family's breeding stock, including cows, bulls and 2-year-old heifers, were sent to a packing plant in Nebraska....Farm Bureau Cool On COOL At a final convention press conference Wednesday, American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman struggled to explain apparent contradictions in policies delegates adopted on country of origin labeling and trade. Farm Bureau wants a "pause" in the implementation of country of origin labeling for agricultural products, Stallman said. Yet, delegates passed a resolution Tuesday saying they still support "the concept" of COOL. That resolution also criticized the regulations the Bush Administration crafted for implementing COOL, saying the rules did not follow Congress' intent in writing the provision in the 2002 farm bill. The issue appears to remain contentious among Farm Bureau members and leaders.... Standard of the West for 125 years Watson is proud of the heritage he is charged with continuing. “How many companies come to mind that have reached this milestone?” Watson asked. “When Henry Ford introduced his Model T in 1909, Justin had been making boots for 30 years. When the Wright Brothers left the ground for a few historic moments, we had been making boots for 24 years. When the first shots were fired to signal the Oklahoma Land Rush, Justin had been in business for 10 years. I could go on and on. Justin Boots has not only survived, but thrived. There are great products out there that are just as old, but, in my opinion, no brand creates as much positive conversation or fond memories as the Justin brand.”....Jack Daniel rolling out a different kind of label Bull riding, cowboy boots and Jack Daniel's. The company that owns Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey believes all three go together, and it's rolling out its own brand of clothing to get its name out in the Wild West, or at least among people who identify with it. Trying to keep the cowboy connection alive, Brown-Forman sponsors Professional Bull Riders and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events. Jack Daniel's sponsors bull-riding brothers Cory and Evan Rasch on the pro circuit. Now it's rolling out woven printed and solid shirts, T-shirts, and polo shirts with the Jack Daniel's name, along with belt buckles, cowboy hats, wallets and watches....Colorado vet latest to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy Colorado veterinarian Kara Keesling became one of only three privately practicing veterinarians in the United States to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy on horses when she started using the technique on horse last fall. "Though still relatively new to equine veterinary medicine, [hyperbaric oxygen therapy] has been used successfully to treat a wide variety of condition in horses," Keesling said. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy gained a bit of spotlight last season when the treatment was used on undefeated two-year-old champion Vindication in his recovery from a strained suspensory. Keesling has been using the chamber at her Colorado Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center at Fossil Creek Veterinary Hospital in Fort Collins...
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Federal officials draft Canada lynx impact statement Federal officials have finished drafting a study that says how 18 national forest land-use plans in the northern Rockies, including the Bitterroot's, could be amended to protect the threatened Canada lynx. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management draft environmental impact statement for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment proposal differs from an earlier proposal, and includes changes in how officials could address some high-elevation timber thinning and winter recreation. The agencies' preferred alternative E includes proposed restrictions on pre-commercial thinning of timber in snowshoe hare habitat, but it makes exceptions for "fuel reduction" projects intended to reduce fire danger, said Jon Haber, a Forest Service project manager for the Northern Rockies Lynx Amendment in Missoula. Also a change from an earlier proposal is that while the agencies' preferred option would discourage any net increase in "over-the-snow trails" in lynx habitat, primarily new groomed trails used by snowmobiles and compacted on a regular basis, Haber said, it would not prohibit new ones....Sitka residents rally against roadless rule repeal About 100 demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Forest Service District Office on Wednesday morning to protest the Bush Administration's Dec. 23 decision to repeal the "roadless rule" on the Tongass National Forest. Holding blank signs and wearing white mouth gags to signify that opposition to the roadless rule repeal continues to go unheard, the protesters stood in the rain from about 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. as Forest Service employees arrived for work. Protesters held up a 15-foot banner that said, "Tongass BUSH-Whacked: Will of the People Ignored," and sang "This Land is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome."....Florida black bear won't be listed as threatened species Florida black bears have been found sleeping in truck beds in rural Collier County, rummaging through garbage cans and wandering through Golden Gate Estates neighborhoods. But one place they won't be found is on the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reaffirmed on Wednesday a 1998 decision to not list the Florida black bear as a threatened species. Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Fund for Animals challenged the 1998 decision. In 2001, a federal judge ordered the agency to reconsider. The results were published Wednesday in the Federal Register....Fed changes worry bombing range neighbors Bonnie Rader fought the military for years to clean up unexploded ammunition at a former Air Force bombing range in Aurora. "Bombing ranges have so many surprises and it's usually the homeowner who gets the surprise," said Rader, who lives near the former Lowry Gunnery and Bombing Range. "Little people like me can not make a difference without the state and environmental laws to help us." After two years of intense negotiation and a lawsuit, the state forced the Defense Department to develop an extensive cleanup plan for the 59,000-acre site near the Aurora Reservoir in southeast Arapahoe County. States could lose the power to enforce such environmental agreements if Congress approves legislation requested by the Pentagon. The Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative would make military bases exempt from environmental laws that cover everything from hazardous waste, air quality and endangered species....Wyoming lawmakers say feds unclear on wolf plan Wyoming lawmakers say the federal government was vague on what was expected of the state during negotiations on removing wolves from federal protection, and they expressed surprise and hurt that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited flaws in the state plan as a reason for suspending the process. Lawmakers said they got mixed messages from the agency last year as they drafted the proposal for how Wyoming would manage wolf populations after the feds stepped aside. They noted that Wyoming's plan recently passed muster with several wildlife experts and wolf biologists. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., said the federal government had indicated to him that Wyoming's plan was adequate. Gov. Dave Freudenthal added the decision was "based on little more than Potomac politics."....Valley farmers win in court over water loss In a major victory for California farmers, a federal judge has said the U.S. government must compensate a group of San Joaquin Valley growers for diverting some of their water to protect endangered fish. The ruling could tilt the balance between farmers and environmentalists in their endless battle over California's water supply -- and make federal officials hesitate to use the Endangered Species Act to take water from agriculture. "It makes the decision (to enforce the Endangered Species Act) harder because there's direct financial consequences up front," said Lester Snow, a Sacramento water consultant and former regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. "It's a sea change in the way they manage the Endangered Species Act." Under the ruling by Judge John Paul Wiese of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a group of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley must be paid about $26 million for water they didn't receive during droughtlike conditions between 1992 and 1994. The court handles claims against the federal government. The case arose when federal officials invoked the Endangered Species Act to reduce the amount of water being pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the vast farming operations of the San Joaquin Valley. The action was taken to protect two species of fish, the chinook salmon and Delta smelt, which were getting sucked into the government's giant water pumps and killed in ever-increasing numbers....Park police chief alleges systematic harassment National Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers was harassed for at least a year as she tried to reform her agency, and was eventually put on administrative leave after she filed a formal complaint against her immediate supervisor, her attorneys said Wednesday. Lawyers for the embattled chief said she and her top deputies faced an increasingly hostile work environment during the past year that included the scattering of nails under the tires of their vehicles, placement of used condoms on and around vehicles, computer hacking, and the pepper-spraying of office doors....Rehberg invites judge on snowmobile trip Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., has invited the Washington, D.C., judge who overturned the Bush administration's snowmobile plan to take a snowmobile trip with him through Yellowstone National Park. In a letter Wednesday to Judge Emmet Sullivan, Rehberg said he hoped the trip would show that snowmobiles are a "legitimate" form of transportation in Yellowstone. The tour also would give Sullivan a chance to talk with park officials and business owners who depend on snowmobile business in the winter. "While I strongly disagree with your decision for its potentially devastating effect on the economies of nearby gateway communities, I would nonetheless like to invite you to join me in West Yellowstone sometime over the remaining winter months, and take a snowmobile tour of Yellowstone," Rehberg wrote in his letter to the judge....S.D. aerial hunting law concerns coyote hunters The state Game, Fish & Parks Commission wants to give aerial hunters a better shot at coyotes by opening more than a million acres of public land in western South Dakota to nongovernment gunners. That's good news to ranchers who suffer livestock losses to the pesky predators. "The more help we get, the better it is because we're getting overrun by coyotes right now," Harding County rancher and aerial hunter Jerry Janvrin said Wednesday. But some sport hunters worry that highly effective aerial hunting will spoil their sport and could threaten the safety of recreational hunters using public land....Cougar attacks rising in southern Oregon Cougar attacks are becoming more common in southern Oregon, leading to more loss of livestock and threats to humans, biologists said. Just this week, cougars mauled three ewes on Roger Thalacker's 15-acre ranch in Eagle Point, puncturing the throat of one of the animals. The dying ewe is the seventh victim of a cougar attack in the last two years. And last week, a cougar near Williams killed an ostrich and some ducks. Also, last Wednesday in rural Ashland, a man shot and killed a cougar that appeared not to fear people, according to state biologists. Biologists say the conflict between cougars and humans is here to stay. Utah claims Juab road, Right-of-way request is state's first on U.S. land A lonely two-lane highway that winds through Juab County's West Desert is the first claim by state officials for right of way through federally managed lands. Known as the Weiss Highway to those few who travel it, the paved road extends west from Nephi to the Nevada border, providing access to ranchers who are scattered through western Juab County, County Commissioner William Howarth said. The road has existed for decades, at one time leading to a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and has long been used by miners, law enforcement officers and outdoor recreators. Howarth was on hand for a Wednesday afternoon news conference at the Utah headquarters of the Utah Bureau of Land Management, where Gov. Olene Walker formally submitted a claim for the Weiss Highway to the BLM. The state could potentially submit thousands of claims for right of way to roads under the RS 2477 statute during coming years, and many of those roads are needed travel routes that should be protected, Howarth said....Pilot program may pummel prairie dogs Limited poisoning of prairie dogs on federal grasslands south of Badlands National Park could resume soon in a pilot program to provide relief for ranchers whose land is being overrun by prairie dogs from the nearby federal land. The pilot program is still in the planning stages, but state and federal officials hope to have it together by about March 1, Bill Perry, Wall District ranger on the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, said Wednesday. Although Perry said the proposed pilot plan is not a "knee-jerk" reaction, his announcement comes after area ranchers complained in recent weeks to the Pennington County Commission that prairie dogs from federal lands were encroaching on their private ranches in Conata Basin, ruining rangeland for grazing....Illegal poison poses threat to other species Illegal poisoning of prairie dogs in Conata Basin may have killed some black-footed ferrets and is endangering other mammals and birds in the area, according to Bill Perry, Wall District ranger with Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The black-footed ferrets, reintroduced in Conata Basin in 1996, are doing well overall, but numbers fell by about one third in the area where illegal poison has been found on federal land east of the Conata Basin road, Perry said. "The rodenticide is killing the prairie dogs, and it is carried in their carcasses, and then it can kill any predators that eat the carcasses," Perry said.... Court Hears Arguments Over Nuclear Waste Dump Attorneys for the state of Nevada and environmental groups told a U.S. appellate court yesterday that federal agencies ignored science and law in deciding to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste in a mountain outside Las Vegas. Taking up the Yucca Mountain dispute, which has raged for two decades, the panel of three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard federal government lawyers argue that the decision to create the dump for waste from the nation's nuclear reactors was based on sound reasoning. Nevada officials consider the federal court one of their last hopes of stopping the $58 billion project, located in the desert 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The panel is expected to issue its decision in late spring or summer, and attorneys on both sides said they would appeal to the full appellate court if they lose....Court Urged to Require EPA Role in Everglades Shift of Polluted Water A lawyer for an Everglades Indian tribe urged the Supreme Court yesterday to require South Florida's water managers to get federal approval before they shift water from the suburbs to protected wetlands, as the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could affect state water supply and flood-control practices across the nation. But Jeffrey P. Minear, a lawyer for the Justice Department, which supports the SFWMD, told the court that the pump is not covered by the Clean Water Act because it is merely moving polluted water around, not adding pollution to the water, and that "the costs would be very substantial" if permitting were required. The water district and its supporters -- which include not only the Bush administration, but also New York City and 11 western states -- say those costs would include a heavy new regulatory burden on states and cities that move vast amounts of agricultural and drinking water via aqueducts, pipes and reservoirs. The Indian tribe is backed by 14 states, mostly from the East, and by environmental groups....West Texas water export plan draws state scrutiny Thirsty cities far away from underground water supplies in West Texas make ranchers and El Paso community leaders nervous. The livelihood of rural Texas and El Paso's future water supply both could hinge on how state officials handle a private company's desires to export water from state land in far West Texas to distant communities. A Senate Select Committee on Water Policy will meet Feb. 3 in El Paso. The committee met for the first time Wednesday in an effort to refine state water policy that has been seven years in the making. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is considering a plan by a consortium of Midland-based investors, who want to lease 355,000 acres of state land in Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis and Presidio counties. The company, called Rio Nuevo Ltd., wants to export water from the land and sell it....New Test Scores Cattle Temperaments A livestock specialist at the University of Georgia has developed a scoring system that allows owners to assess the temperaments of cattle so they can breed calmer calves. Studies conducted in Australia, Colorado and elsewhere have shown that serene cattle gain weight faster and provide more tender meat than cranky cattle. Also, calves with poor dispositions can cause costly damage to equipment, fences and harm handlers, said Jerry Baker, a researcher at the university's Coastal Plain Experiment Station....Remaining cattle from brucellosis herd shipped to slaughter About 260 cattle from a western Wyoming ranch were sent to slaughter Wednesday, the latest step in federal and state efforts to prevent spread of brucellosis. "It wasn't the best," rancher Jerry Jensen said of his emotions in seeing the bulk of his family's herd leave in five cattle trucks. "I mean, you see four generations go down the road, and it wasn't our fault." All the family's breeding stock, including cows, bulls and 2-year-old heifers, were sent to a packing plant in Nebraska....Farm Bureau Cool On COOL At a final convention press conference Wednesday, American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman struggled to explain apparent contradictions in policies delegates adopted on country of origin labeling and trade. Farm Bureau wants a "pause" in the implementation of country of origin labeling for agricultural products, Stallman said. Yet, delegates passed a resolution Tuesday saying they still support "the concept" of COOL. That resolution also criticized the regulations the Bush Administration crafted for implementing COOL, saying the rules did not follow Congress' intent in writing the provision in the 2002 farm bill. The issue appears to remain contentious among Farm Bureau members and leaders.... Standard of the West for 125 years Watson is proud of the heritage he is charged with continuing. “How many companies come to mind that have reached this milestone?” Watson asked. “When Henry Ford introduced his Model T in 1909, Justin had been making boots for 30 years. When the Wright Brothers left the ground for a few historic moments, we had been making boots for 24 years. When the first shots were fired to signal the Oklahoma Land Rush, Justin had been in business for 10 years. I could go on and on. Justin Boots has not only survived, but thrived. There are great products out there that are just as old, but, in my opinion, no brand creates as much positive conversation or fond memories as the Justin brand.”....Jack Daniel rolling out a different kind of label Bull riding, cowboy boots and Jack Daniel's. The company that owns Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey believes all three go together, and it's rolling out its own brand of clothing to get its name out in the Wild West, or at least among people who identify with it. Trying to keep the cowboy connection alive, Brown-Forman sponsors Professional Bull Riders and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events. Jack Daniel's sponsors bull-riding brothers Cory and Evan Rasch on the pro circuit. Now it's rolling out woven printed and solid shirts, T-shirts, and polo shirts with the Jack Daniel's name, along with belt buckles, cowboy hats, wallets and watches....Colorado vet latest to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy Colorado veterinarian Kara Keesling became one of only three privately practicing veterinarians in the United States to use hyperbaric oxygen therapy on horses when she started using the technique on horse last fall. "Though still relatively new to equine veterinary medicine, [hyperbaric oxygen therapy] has been used successfully to treat a wide variety of condition in horses," Keesling said. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy gained a bit of spotlight last season when the treatment was used on undefeated two-year-old champion Vindication in his recovery from a strained suspensory. Keesling has been using the chamber at her Colorado Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center at Fossil Creek Veterinary Hospital in Fort Collins...
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MAD COW NEWS
Mad cow center stage at stock show Stock show officials put together a symposium with Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colorado, and stock show President Pat Grant to sort the facts from fears. James Milligan, 50, of Kings, Illinois, raises Herefords and his family has been ranching on the same land since 1836. The stock show veteran, who hasn't sold any animals since the scare began, is also worried about falling cattle prices. "We got over a dollar a pound for the last batch we sold, now they're going for 80 cents a pound," he said. Milligan thinks the public understands there isn't a health risk at this point, and he hoped people recognize the infected animal was a dairy cow. "I wouldn't sell anything to anybody that I wouldn't eat myself," he said. "And I really think most producers are that way."....USDA Tracing Suspect Cattle From Canada When investigators went to the Alberta, Canada, farm of Wayne and Shirley Forsberg, the couple's remarkably simple records made it easy to prove they raised the Holstein that brought the first known case of mad cow disease into the United States. But investigators are having far more trouble finding the scores of other animals from the Forsberg ranch that came into the United States with the diseased cow. Three weeks after the infected animal's discovery at a Mabton, Wash., farm, officials have located only 14 of the 81 cows they are looking for....Beef back on menu at Jefferson County schools Last week, the district decided to pull four items out of school cafeterias because of concerns about mad cow disease. They were beef-combo burritos, taco chalupas, foot-long hot dogs and bologna. As of Wednesday, the district is putting those items back on menus, after reassurance from the distributors that the food is safe....Three Truckee restaurants served beef recalled because of mad cow concern Three restaurants in the Truckee portion of Nevada County received and served beef that was recalled because of possible contamination from mad cow disease, county Environmental Health Department announced today. Neither county nor state officials would name the three restaurants involved because the USDA will not allow local officials to release the information, county health officials said. The recalled beef was not distributed to retail outlets, such as grocery stores, the release said. All the beef had been served at the Truckee-area restaurants before the county or the places of businesses had been notified of the recall, state Department of Health Services confirmed today....Group criticizes public health leadership as piecemeal, haphazard When Trust for America's Health complained in August 2003 that federal efforts to prevent and control animal-borne illness were lacking, mad-cow disease hadn't yet been discovered in the United States. Now that bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been found, anxiety about whether to let our kids eat a McDonald's hamburger has added a new urgency to the trust's mission. The organization, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group founded to raise the profile of public health matters, charges that the federal government and Congress have allowed the growing problem of animal-borne illness to be addressed in a diffuse and, therefore, needlessly haphazard way. "No one's truly in charge, and it leaves you at risk," said Shelley A. Hearne, the group's executive director. The trust's August report calculates that more than 200 government offices and programs have a hand in responding to the animal-borne diseases that have been making the news in the past few months....Canada blocks meat-hauling trucks because of mad cow fears Canadian customs officials have refused to let a Bozeman company’s trucks cross its border to reach Alaska since mad cow disease was found in Washington state last month, owner Paul Lambert said Tuesday. The ban on Northern Routes Transportation’s trucks makes no sense, Lambert said, because they travel to Alaska on a “through-transit” permit. That means they’re bonded and sealed at the border and can’t be opened until they reach Alaska unless a Canadian customs official is present. The ban is costing the company thousands of dollars, Lambert said....USDA overhauls meat inspection rules The disconnect between the two Agriculture Department agencies responsible for safety of the food supply is how meat from a Holstein cow in Washington State potentially ended up on dinner tables in six states before federal regulators discovered the cow had been infected with the disease commonly known as "mad cow disease." Under new rules established by the Agriculture Department that went into effect Monday, meat inspectors can no longer mark carcasses as having passed inspection while they are undergoing testing for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE); carcasses can now be marked as inspected only after negative test results are received. Before Monday, carcasses selected for testing were marked by inspectors as "inspected," and would likely have entered the food chain by the time test results were received....Another herd quarantined due to mad cow link-USDA Another dairy herd in Washington state was quarantined after at least one animal was linked to a Holstein cow infected with mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday. USDA said at least one herdmate of the infected cow was sent to a dairy facility in Quincy, Washington. "USDA believes that as many as seven animals may have been sent to this facility," it said in a statement. "We are working to confirm how many may remain at this facility."....Editorial: 'Alternative' Food Market? Fake Food Scares! In this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, organic-farming cheerleader Michael Pollan declared: "For several years now, an alternative, postindustrial food chain has been taking shape, its growth fueled by one 'food scare' after another: Alar, G.M.O.'s [sic], rBGH, E. coli 0157:H7; now B.S.E." This, for Pollan, is a good thing. Never mind that the Alar scare, which devastated apple farmers, was an utter fabrication staged to raise money for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Forget that biotech crops (GMOs) pose zero risk to human health, that milk from cows given the "recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone" (rBGH) is indistinguishable from conventional milk, that Americans are more likely to get E. coli food poisoning from eating organic produce, and that -- as Pollan himself admits -- the risk of getting mad cow disease "may be vanishingly small." Michael Pollan never denies that our modern food system is the safest in the world. He simply doesn't care. Instead, Pollan wants readers to share his feelings about the way food is produced. It's just "nauseating," "gross," and "disgusting," according to this eminent writer. Go organic, Pollan insists. Embrace the "countercuisine." It's less "gross." Of course, Pollan's knack for making the most innocuous agricultural practice seem "disgusting" is never applied to organic food. He knows that readers are less likely to embrace the "alternative food chain" when they know their bean sprouts are grown in manure (what we might call the "ick" in organic)....Mad cow import bans get Canadian goats Bans on Canadian animal exports because of mad cow disease are having a devastating impact on a small but specialized sector of the market -- farmers who sell goats for use in traditional Muslim holiday feasts. U.S. importers and retailers said on Wednesday that prices were rising steeply ahead of the early February Eid al-Adha celebration that concludes the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. "I will not have enough goats for the festival," said Taher Mayar, owner of Mayar Halal Meat in California. "And the people will not be able to buy one because of the high price." Live goats from Canada are included in an American import ban on ruminants that followed the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in Alberta last May.... JAPAN: McDonald's to give away hamburgers in wake of US BSE case Panicking over yet another BSE crisis, this time in the wake of the mad cow discovery in the US in December, McDonald's Co. Japan said it would be giving away ten million hamburgers to customers this Sunday. Code-named ‘Mac Hamburger Day,’ the Japanese franchise said it will hand out coupons for its burgers with purchases in a bid to assure customers of the safety of its beef supplies. For years the company has trumpeted that its beef comes from non-tainted Australian supplies only and not American or domestic beef that was hit by Japan’s own BSE outbreak two years ago. However, sales have decreased dramatically at the outset of each outbreak....Beef sales up despite mad cow Wholesalers bought the third-largest amount of beef in a one-week period since 1990 as consumer demand for U.S. beef remains strong three weeks after a dairy cow on a ranch in Washington state was found to have mad cow disease. The beef wholesalers purchased 21.7 million pounds of beef, destined for retailers and food service operators, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a trade group in Centennial, Colo. The association said Tuesday that the figure is 42.6 percent greater than shipments during the week ended Oct. 31, 2003,which was considered a good week, said Michelle Peterson, a spokeswoman....Editorial: 'Unfair' bans on U.S. beef mirror actions taken here In a campaign to lift the bans, the U.S. government says it has taken adequate steps to ensure that the one mad cow case remains an isolated incident. However its arguments are undercut by its own history of banning other countries' beef at the first appearance of the disease, then retaining the bans even in the face of far tougher steps than the U.S. has taken so far. Japan's beef, for example, is still banned in spite of the world's most rigorous testing. Such actions open the U.S. to charges of hypocrisy and invite a similarly arbitrary response from trading partners now that the U.S. is suffering its own mad cow problem. Moreover, they beg the most important question: What level of scrutiny is needed to adequately protect consumers, regardless of where their meat comes from?....
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Mad cow center stage at stock show Stock show officials put together a symposium with Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colorado, and stock show President Pat Grant to sort the facts from fears. James Milligan, 50, of Kings, Illinois, raises Herefords and his family has been ranching on the same land since 1836. The stock show veteran, who hasn't sold any animals since the scare began, is also worried about falling cattle prices. "We got over a dollar a pound for the last batch we sold, now they're going for 80 cents a pound," he said. Milligan thinks the public understands there isn't a health risk at this point, and he hoped people recognize the infected animal was a dairy cow. "I wouldn't sell anything to anybody that I wouldn't eat myself," he said. "And I really think most producers are that way."....USDA Tracing Suspect Cattle From Canada When investigators went to the Alberta, Canada, farm of Wayne and Shirley Forsberg, the couple's remarkably simple records made it easy to prove they raised the Holstein that brought the first known case of mad cow disease into the United States. But investigators are having far more trouble finding the scores of other animals from the Forsberg ranch that came into the United States with the diseased cow. Three weeks after the infected animal's discovery at a Mabton, Wash., farm, officials have located only 14 of the 81 cows they are looking for....Beef back on menu at Jefferson County schools Last week, the district decided to pull four items out of school cafeterias because of concerns about mad cow disease. They were beef-combo burritos, taco chalupas, foot-long hot dogs and bologna. As of Wednesday, the district is putting those items back on menus, after reassurance from the distributors that the food is safe....Three Truckee restaurants served beef recalled because of mad cow concern Three restaurants in the Truckee portion of Nevada County received and served beef that was recalled because of possible contamination from mad cow disease, county Environmental Health Department announced today. Neither county nor state officials would name the three restaurants involved because the USDA will not allow local officials to release the information, county health officials said. The recalled beef was not distributed to retail outlets, such as grocery stores, the release said. All the beef had been served at the Truckee-area restaurants before the county or the places of businesses had been notified of the recall, state Department of Health Services confirmed today....Group criticizes public health leadership as piecemeal, haphazard When Trust for America's Health complained in August 2003 that federal efforts to prevent and control animal-borne illness were lacking, mad-cow disease hadn't yet been discovered in the United States. Now that bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been found, anxiety about whether to let our kids eat a McDonald's hamburger has added a new urgency to the trust's mission. The organization, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group founded to raise the profile of public health matters, charges that the federal government and Congress have allowed the growing problem of animal-borne illness to be addressed in a diffuse and, therefore, needlessly haphazard way. "No one's truly in charge, and it leaves you at risk," said Shelley A. Hearne, the group's executive director. The trust's August report calculates that more than 200 government offices and programs have a hand in responding to the animal-borne diseases that have been making the news in the past few months....Canada blocks meat-hauling trucks because of mad cow fears Canadian customs officials have refused to let a Bozeman company’s trucks cross its border to reach Alaska since mad cow disease was found in Washington state last month, owner Paul Lambert said Tuesday. The ban on Northern Routes Transportation’s trucks makes no sense, Lambert said, because they travel to Alaska on a “through-transit” permit. That means they’re bonded and sealed at the border and can’t be opened until they reach Alaska unless a Canadian customs official is present. The ban is costing the company thousands of dollars, Lambert said....USDA overhauls meat inspection rules The disconnect between the two Agriculture Department agencies responsible for safety of the food supply is how meat from a Holstein cow in Washington State potentially ended up on dinner tables in six states before federal regulators discovered the cow had been infected with the disease commonly known as "mad cow disease." Under new rules established by the Agriculture Department that went into effect Monday, meat inspectors can no longer mark carcasses as having passed inspection while they are undergoing testing for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE); carcasses can now be marked as inspected only after negative test results are received. Before Monday, carcasses selected for testing were marked by inspectors as "inspected," and would likely have entered the food chain by the time test results were received....Another herd quarantined due to mad cow link-USDA Another dairy herd in Washington state was quarantined after at least one animal was linked to a Holstein cow infected with mad cow disease, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday. USDA said at least one herdmate of the infected cow was sent to a dairy facility in Quincy, Washington. "USDA believes that as many as seven animals may have been sent to this facility," it said in a statement. "We are working to confirm how many may remain at this facility."....Editorial: 'Alternative' Food Market? Fake Food Scares! In this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, organic-farming cheerleader Michael Pollan declared: "For several years now, an alternative, postindustrial food chain has been taking shape, its growth fueled by one 'food scare' after another: Alar, G.M.O.'s [sic], rBGH, E. coli 0157:H7; now B.S.E." This, for Pollan, is a good thing. Never mind that the Alar scare, which devastated apple farmers, was an utter fabrication staged to raise money for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Forget that biotech crops (GMOs) pose zero risk to human health, that milk from cows given the "recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone" (rBGH) is indistinguishable from conventional milk, that Americans are more likely to get E. coli food poisoning from eating organic produce, and that -- as Pollan himself admits -- the risk of getting mad cow disease "may be vanishingly small." Michael Pollan never denies that our modern food system is the safest in the world. He simply doesn't care. Instead, Pollan wants readers to share his feelings about the way food is produced. It's just "nauseating," "gross," and "disgusting," according to this eminent writer. Go organic, Pollan insists. Embrace the "countercuisine." It's less "gross." Of course, Pollan's knack for making the most innocuous agricultural practice seem "disgusting" is never applied to organic food. He knows that readers are less likely to embrace the "alternative food chain" when they know their bean sprouts are grown in manure (what we might call the "ick" in organic)....Mad cow import bans get Canadian goats Bans on Canadian animal exports because of mad cow disease are having a devastating impact on a small but specialized sector of the market -- farmers who sell goats for use in traditional Muslim holiday feasts. U.S. importers and retailers said on Wednesday that prices were rising steeply ahead of the early February Eid al-Adha celebration that concludes the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. "I will not have enough goats for the festival," said Taher Mayar, owner of Mayar Halal Meat in California. "And the people will not be able to buy one because of the high price." Live goats from Canada are included in an American import ban on ruminants that followed the discovery of a single case of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in Alberta last May.... JAPAN: McDonald's to give away hamburgers in wake of US BSE case Panicking over yet another BSE crisis, this time in the wake of the mad cow discovery in the US in December, McDonald's Co. Japan said it would be giving away ten million hamburgers to customers this Sunday. Code-named ‘Mac Hamburger Day,’ the Japanese franchise said it will hand out coupons for its burgers with purchases in a bid to assure customers of the safety of its beef supplies. For years the company has trumpeted that its beef comes from non-tainted Australian supplies only and not American or domestic beef that was hit by Japan’s own BSE outbreak two years ago. However, sales have decreased dramatically at the outset of each outbreak....Beef sales up despite mad cow Wholesalers bought the third-largest amount of beef in a one-week period since 1990 as consumer demand for U.S. beef remains strong three weeks after a dairy cow on a ranch in Washington state was found to have mad cow disease. The beef wholesalers purchased 21.7 million pounds of beef, destined for retailers and food service operators, according to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, a trade group in Centennial, Colo. The association said Tuesday that the figure is 42.6 percent greater than shipments during the week ended Oct. 31, 2003,which was considered a good week, said Michelle Peterson, a spokeswoman....Editorial: 'Unfair' bans on U.S. beef mirror actions taken here In a campaign to lift the bans, the U.S. government says it has taken adequate steps to ensure that the one mad cow case remains an isolated incident. However its arguments are undercut by its own history of banning other countries' beef at the first appearance of the disease, then retaining the bans even in the face of far tougher steps than the U.S. has taken so far. Japan's beef, for example, is still banned in spite of the world's most rigorous testing. Such actions open the U.S. to charges of hypocrisy and invite a similarly arbitrary response from trading partners now that the U.S. is suffering its own mad cow problem. Moreover, they beg the most important question: What level of scrutiny is needed to adequately protect consumers, regardless of where their meat comes from?....
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Interior Design: An interview with Interior's Lynn Scarlett, one of the architects of Bush's "new environmentalism" The people who make policy don't always make headlines. The Bush administration boasts more than a few strong-minded, behind-the-scenes strategists with almost as much influence as cabinet members. Lynn Scarlett is one of them. As assistant secretary of the Department of Interior's Office of Policy, Management, and Budget, Scarlett helps determine the budgets for all eight DOI bureaus -- from Fish and Wildlife to the Minerals Management Service. Her office performs background analysis on every revised rule and new program that passes through the agency. That makes her the only person in Interior, aside from Secretary Gale Norton and Deputy Secretary Steven Griles, whose responsibilities are cross-departmental. In other words, Scarlett knows a thing or two about the ins and outs of the Bush administration's environmental policy....Column: President aiming at New Mexico's forests Two days before Christmas, President George W. Bush was busy playing Grinch with America's greatest wild forest. He announced that he was eliminating roadless protections for 9.6 million pristine acres in the Tongass National Forest, which is the world's largest intact temperate rain forest and America's largest national forest. While this grand forest is thousands of miles away in Alaska, the White House also has set its sights on roadless areas throughout the West, including here in New Mexico. And perhaps the most outrageous thing about Bush's decision is that it means that American taxpayers, including we here in New Mexico, will be footing the bill for destruction of our country's last pristine forests....202-well grasslands CBM project advances The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance sharply criticized the U.S. Forest Service recently for its initial approval of a 202-well coalbed methane gas project covering portions of the Thunder Basin National Grassland. Erik Molvar of the BCA said Bill Barrett Corp's Big Porcupine Coalbed Methane Gas Project would contribute to ongoing development in the area that threatens to "industrialize" the grassland. Molvar said his group is worried that wildlife and recreation on Wyoming's only protected grassland might be sacrificed to the development....More eagles soar over nearby lakes More bald eagles are soaring over four lakes in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The U.S. Forest Service has coordinated counts of the federally-protected species since 1978. The data contributes to the nationwide mid-winter bald eagle census to track the recovery of the birds. Eighteen bald eagles were counted at the four lakes on Saturday, up from last month's count of 10, U.S. Forest Service biologist Marc Stamer said. Officials said bald eagle numbers in the Big Bear Basin have fluctuated over the past 21 years from a low of about 10 to a high of about 40....Forest: No free ride for ATVs Under a policy change recently announced by officials at the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, riders of all-terrain vehicles no longer are eligible for a discount fee program offered to other forest users. The forest sells $25 annual passes that allow unlimited visits to certain day-use areas, such as developed picnic sites, popular hiking trails, shooting ranges and boat launches. Without the annual pass, visitors pay fees of $2 to $5 per car, depending on the site. Off-road vehicle users still can buy a pass and use it for activities such as hiking, but if they want to ride in one of the forest's seven ATV areas, they must pay the $5 per day fee....Funding will allow for more rangers in Tahoe Meadows Increased funding has allowed the U.S. Forest Service to double the time rangers spend patroling the popular Tahoe Meadows, where conflicts with cross-country skiers and others prompted a ban on snowmobiles from most of the area in 2001. The rangers’ presence has been welcomed by snowmobile critics and some who ride the machines, representatives of both sides said....Fast fire action sought from military aircraft Some members of Congress believe military air tankers should be dispatched as soon as possible to keep raging wildfires from becoming disasters. And they hope to make that happen before more deadly wildfires occur like those in October that burned 750,000 acres over five counties, killing 22 people and destroying more than 5,500 homes. At least three congressmen from regions devastated by wildfires are pushing to override a provision in a Depression-Era act that precludes using military aircraft in aerial firefighting until all civilian air tankers have been committed....Organ Pipe 'under siege' due to crime Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, plagued by rampant smuggling of people and marijuana, has been named one of America's 10 most endangered national parks. The National Parks and Conservation Association says progress has been made since park ranger Kris Eggle was murdered along the border in 2002. But the group says Organ Pipe still needs more money to repair ecological damage and strengthen law enforcement. "This park is under siege and must get immediate attention," said Ron Tipton, vice president of the 300,000-member group. Organ Pipe borders Mexico for 30 miles, with that nation's busy Highway 2 often visible from the flimsy border fence....USFWS rejects Wyo wolf plan; Move derails gray wolf delisting efforts Plans to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list were derailed Tuesday when federal officials rejected Wyoming's controversial dual-classification plan for wolf management. "Delisting cannot be proposed at this time due to some significant concerns about portions of Wyoming's state law and wolf management plan," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams wrote to Wyoming Game and Fish director Terry Cleveland. Wyoming's plan proposed classifying wolves outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and adjoining wilderness areas as predators. The wolf management plans crafted by Montana and Idaho officials were deemed "adequate," but wolves cannot be delisted in the West until all three states have Fish and Wildlife Service-approved plans. The decision pleased environmentalists and upset Wyoming politicians and ranchers....Wolf delisting stuck while feds wait for acceptable Wyoming plan The process toward delisting the wolf screeched to a halt Tuesday, when federal officials declared that Wyoming's wolf recovery plan simply isn't up to snuff. Both federal and state officials had said the complicated process of removing wolves from the endangered species list could begin this year. That isn't likely to happen now, unless Wyoming's state government undergoes a large and rapid transformation of its attitude toward wolves....Gray wolf delisting delayed: FWS cites Wyoming's predator designation Williams restated concerns about Wyoming's "dual classification" proposal that would consider some wolves to be predators, where they could be killed any time and in any way, and others as trophy game, subject to hunting and other regulations. The potential for unregulated killing and an inadequate monitoring plan "do not provide sufficient management controls to assure the service that the wolf population will remain above recovery levels," Williams wrote....LAWSUIT SEEKS REDRESS FOR MASSIVE ILLEGAL BIRD KILLS AT ALTAMONT PASS, CA, WIND FARMS The Center for Biological Diversity ("CBD") filed a lawsuit today against Florida energy producer FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE symbol: FPL) and Danish wind power company NEG Micon A/S for their part in the illegal ongoing killing of tens of thousands of protected birds by wind turbines at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area ("APWRA") in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Through their subsidiaries and associated entities, FPL Group and NEG Micon own or operate roughly half of the approximately 5,400 wind turbines at the APWRA. Each year, wind turbines at the APWRA kill up to 60 or more golden eagles and hundreds of other hawks, owls, and other protected raptors. These bird kills have continued for 20 years in flagrant violation of the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and several California Fish and Game Code provisions. The lawsuit alleges that these violations and bird kills are unlawful and unfair business practices under the California Business and Professions Code....Wolf population still doing well despite two deaths Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said the Mexican Gray Wolf population is still doing well despite the discovery of a dead wolf that was found in Apache Sitgreaves National Forest on Dec. 21. In December, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Field Coordinator John Oakleaf told the Courier that about 50 to 60 of the endangered species are alive in the wild. Arizona Game and Fish Nongame Biologist Dan Groebner verified this number on Thursday and said that pups who have survived until now have a high probability of surviving the winter....Study: Noise Machine Keeps Predators Off Property Conservation scientists may have hit upon the 21st century's answer to the good old-fashioned scarecrow. A motion-activated device which blasts out a cacophonous chorus of gunshots, helicopters, and other sounds, together with blinding flashes of strobe lighting, may be a highly effective tool in repelling wolves, bears, and other large carnivores. The fright device could be a valuable new tool in fighting the escalating problem of human-carnivore conflict, suggest conservationists behind a new study confirming its effectiveness. Currently when coyotes, mountain lions, and other predators threaten livestock, U.S. federal wildlife managers are forced to kill them.... Column: Return of the Wolf, Will the alpha predator change your hunting? By the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s last count in 2003, the Northern Rockies contained 747 wolves, including 46 breeding pairs. The population was growing at a 12 percent clip, a decrease from previous rates. Ed Bangs, the USFWS northwestern wolf recovery coordinator, believes that all the most suitable wolf habitat—free from conflicts with humans—has wolves. Yellowstone has the “highest density of wolves in the world,” reports the New York Times. Bangs estimates that their numbers will top out at 1,000; but that does not mean there will be 1,000 wolves in Yellowstone and none anywhere else....Interior Secretary: New Approach to Land Management Interior Secretary Gale Norton told participants at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting and convention the goal of the Bush administration’s management of the nation’s natural resources is cooperation rather than conflict. In an address to convention, Norton said the current administration has brought “a new approach” to managing federal lands, water resources and endangered species. “Too often in the past the relationship between Interior and farmers and ranchers has been one of antagonism over things like water rights, endangered species and cattle grazing on public lands,” Norton said. She said the administration has provided a "subtle but major shift in the direction of environmental policy.” She told the audience that there is “no reason” the Interior Department and agricultural producers should be at odds. “Each one of you is dedicated to taking care of the land and its wildlife. You are true conservationists,” she said....Feds, Idaho Power near agreement on snails Idaho Power Co. and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are close to reaching an agreement that would allow five Snake River hydropower plants to get relicensed and continue operating without harming endangered aquatic snails. The agreement will spell out a variety of operational changes, conservation measures and studies that Idaho Power will do in the coming years in the hopes of protecting the tiny snails from further harm, according to the federal agency and the company....Court backs phase-out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park A federal appeals court Tuesday dealt a blow to snowmobile enthusiasts when it rejected efforts to suspend a phase-out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks this winter. Lawyers for Wyoming and the snowmobile industry had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for an emergency suspension of a lower court's decision to impose a phase-out of snowmobiles in the park. They had asked for the emergency suspension to prevent irreparable harm to the snowmobile industry while the court considered an appeal of the lower court's decision to impose the phase-out. The court is not expected to rule on the actual appeal for at least several months....E-mails on creation flap 'swamp' Park Service Thousands of Americans on both sides of a heated debate over a book offered in a Grand Canyon gift shop have e-mailed their opinions to the National Park Service in the last several days. "I'm swamped," David Barna, chief of public affairs for the agency, told WorldNetDaily. Barna estimated the number of e-mails and phone calls to be "probably 2,000 easily." Causing the flow of e-mail is the controversy over a book for sale at the Grand Canyon that claims the famous area was formed by the Old Testament flood Noah survived and can be no older than a few thousand years. That contention has some scientists calling for the book to be pulled from store shelves.... Security lapses spurred firing U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa C. Chambers was removed from office after an Interior Department investigation revealed security lapses at the Statue of Liberty and at the Washington Monument four months ago on the anniversary of September 11. Top Interior Department officials confirmed the reasons for the firing. One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the security lapses "led to her demise." "The [inspector general] did several reports that pointed to security lapses, and the Park Service in response was putting demands on her to stop lowering her priorities and to start protecting the monuments," the official said. "The additional demands caused her to react negatively."....Escalante scientist on leave over relics charges The lead range scientist for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending a final review of allegations of misconduct, which include the theft of American Indian relics. Monument Manager Dave Hunsaker confirmed Monday that Gregg Christensen was relieved of his duties Thursday. Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's Office has declined to file charges against Christensen, noting the expired statute of limitations on the alleged crimes. The final decision on whether Christensen will retain his job is in the hands of the director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's state headquarters in Salt Lake City. In past similar cases, however, being placed on administrative leave with pay was a prelude to a termination....Wells, profits go through roof: Gas producers hit new highs in 2003 in rigs, production By all accounts, 2003 was a blockbuster year for Colorado's natural gas producers. A record 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day was produced, up 6 percent from the previous year, according to early estimates by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. A cubic foot is a standard measure of gas, and 6,000 cubic feet of gas is the equivalent of one barrel of oil. This jump was the result of unprecedented drilling, which resulted in a record 25,042 active wells from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2003. That's up 6 percent from the previous year. More drilling has boosted the bottom lines of Colorado and other gas companies to the tune of millions of dollars. Given the ballooning production and profits, some economists are questioning the Bush administration's policy to give billion of dollars in tax incentives to gas producers in the proposed energy bill....Lawsuit over pesticides blames EPA Attorneys representing farm workers in Washington and other states yesterday sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to adequately protect workers and the environment from the use of toxic pesticides. The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Seattle because one of the five plaintiffs, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, is based here, said attorneys for Earthjustice, a local legal group that focuses on environmental issues. Attorneys for the farm-worker groups, which include the United Farmworkers of America, claim that the EPA has continued to allow the use of two toxic pesticides, azinphos-methyl and phosmet, despite data showing the dangers of exposure to such chemicals.... Water Pump Case Tests Federal Law The court, which will hear arguments on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by a small Indian tribe against Florida water authorities, will decide whether, legally speaking, the pump is adding pollutants to the Everglades or is simply transferring them between bodies of water that belong to the same large national system of waterways. If the court decides the pump adds pollutants, S-9 and similar pumping equipment could become subject to a stringent system of permits and pollution controls required under the Clean Water Act. The court is stepping in at a time when the nation's water agencies and developers are engaged in huge efforts to tap and reroute water to quench the thirst of expanding suburban communities.... River flows fatten Lees Ferry trout Efforts to improve conditions for endangered fish in the Grand Canyon are also helping trout-fishing upstream on the Colorado River, producing what one angler called "fat, feisty fish." The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last week began a second year of experimental flows on the river from Glen Canyon Dam through the Grand Canyon. The flows are designed to slow trout spawning in the 16-mile stretch of the river between the dam and Lees Ferry, leaving fewer of the fish to swim downstream....Brucellosis may be problem for Yellowstone sheep Brucellosis may play some role in dieoffs of bighorn sheep in and around Yellowstone National Park, and it has been confirmed for the first time in other sheep deaths, a researcher said here Tuesday. An accidental exposure to brucellosis killed most of the bighorn sheep at a research facility in southeastern Wyoming, and a wild bighorn in the Jackson area has shown possible signs of exposure to the disease, said Terry Kreeger....S. Dakota to require test of cattle from Wyoming South Dakota will begin requiring all cattle coming from Wyoming for breeding purposes to be tested for brucellosis. Dr. Sam Holland, state veterinarian for the South Dakota Animal Industry Board, issued the order, which takes effect Feb. 1. The order requires all cattle from Wyoming over 18 months of age and intended for breeding purposes to be officially tested for brucellosis within 30 days of entering South Dakota, according to a news release from Holland's office....Plaintiffs claim Tyson contracts cost cattlemen billions The nation's largest packer used contracts with a "favored few" ranchers to dictate the price of cattle and cause thousands of cattlemen to lose billions of dollars, attorneys said in federal court Tuesday. But lawyers for IBP Inc., which merged with Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc. in 2001, countered that these contracts are based on the open-market price of cattle and do not undermine the market forces of supply and demand. Tuesday marked the first day of testimony in a nearly 8-year-old class-action lawsuit accusing Tyson of violating the federal Packers and Stockyards Act. The plaintiffs claim to represent as many as 30,000 cattlemen who sold cattle to IBP or Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. from February 1994 to October 2002, though Tyson says no one knows how big the group is....Welsh sheepdogs prove their worth in cowboy country SEVEN years ago the traditional Welsh sheepdog was threatened with extinction. But now the remarkable breed, with a passion for hard work, is making its mark across the globe. And yesterday Siân and Spot, two 10-week old puppies from mid Wales, were on their way to the United States to work and breed in Kansas cattle country. American ranchers, like farmers throughout the UK, Germany and Sweden, have fallen for the breed's amazing qualities, including its outstanding work rate....Developer plans hotel for FW Stockyards In Fort Worth, the Stockyards Historical District is about to get a new addition that many have awaited for years: a new family-friendly hotel right on Exchange Avenue. Dallas developer Thomas Kirkland said the facility, which will be part of the Amerisuites national chain, will be built in mission style, keeping with historical architecture. The Fort Worth stockyards. Longhorns and longnecks. The hotel will sit behind the Stockyards Visitor Center, next to the old horse and mule barns that still wait to be hitched to the 21st century....Ride 'em, cowboy: He's an advocate for the Old West's cowpokes of color She was 6 feet tall, smoked homemade cigars and was rumored to have broken more noses than anyone in central Montana. If you got her really mad, she might pull out the pair of six-shooters she was packin' -- or, if need be, go for her huge shotgun. And please, don't ask her to cook! Mary Fields was a cowgirl, not a housewife. She even closed down her own restaurant for serving lousy meals. She was more at home throwing down a few whiskeys the local bar....
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Interior Design: An interview with Interior's Lynn Scarlett, one of the architects of Bush's "new environmentalism" The people who make policy don't always make headlines. The Bush administration boasts more than a few strong-minded, behind-the-scenes strategists with almost as much influence as cabinet members. Lynn Scarlett is one of them. As assistant secretary of the Department of Interior's Office of Policy, Management, and Budget, Scarlett helps determine the budgets for all eight DOI bureaus -- from Fish and Wildlife to the Minerals Management Service. Her office performs background analysis on every revised rule and new program that passes through the agency. That makes her the only person in Interior, aside from Secretary Gale Norton and Deputy Secretary Steven Griles, whose responsibilities are cross-departmental. In other words, Scarlett knows a thing or two about the ins and outs of the Bush administration's environmental policy....Column: President aiming at New Mexico's forests Two days before Christmas, President George W. Bush was busy playing Grinch with America's greatest wild forest. He announced that he was eliminating roadless protections for 9.6 million pristine acres in the Tongass National Forest, which is the world's largest intact temperate rain forest and America's largest national forest. While this grand forest is thousands of miles away in Alaska, the White House also has set its sights on roadless areas throughout the West, including here in New Mexico. And perhaps the most outrageous thing about Bush's decision is that it means that American taxpayers, including we here in New Mexico, will be footing the bill for destruction of our country's last pristine forests....202-well grasslands CBM project advances The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance sharply criticized the U.S. Forest Service recently for its initial approval of a 202-well coalbed methane gas project covering portions of the Thunder Basin National Grassland. Erik Molvar of the BCA said Bill Barrett Corp's Big Porcupine Coalbed Methane Gas Project would contribute to ongoing development in the area that threatens to "industrialize" the grassland. Molvar said his group is worried that wildlife and recreation on Wyoming's only protected grassland might be sacrificed to the development....More eagles soar over nearby lakes More bald eagles are soaring over four lakes in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The U.S. Forest Service has coordinated counts of the federally-protected species since 1978. The data contributes to the nationwide mid-winter bald eagle census to track the recovery of the birds. Eighteen bald eagles were counted at the four lakes on Saturday, up from last month's count of 10, U.S. Forest Service biologist Marc Stamer said. Officials said bald eagle numbers in the Big Bear Basin have fluctuated over the past 21 years from a low of about 10 to a high of about 40....Forest: No free ride for ATVs Under a policy change recently announced by officials at the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, riders of all-terrain vehicles no longer are eligible for a discount fee program offered to other forest users. The forest sells $25 annual passes that allow unlimited visits to certain day-use areas, such as developed picnic sites, popular hiking trails, shooting ranges and boat launches. Without the annual pass, visitors pay fees of $2 to $5 per car, depending on the site. Off-road vehicle users still can buy a pass and use it for activities such as hiking, but if they want to ride in one of the forest's seven ATV areas, they must pay the $5 per day fee....Funding will allow for more rangers in Tahoe Meadows Increased funding has allowed the U.S. Forest Service to double the time rangers spend patroling the popular Tahoe Meadows, where conflicts with cross-country skiers and others prompted a ban on snowmobiles from most of the area in 2001. The rangers’ presence has been welcomed by snowmobile critics and some who ride the machines, representatives of both sides said....Fast fire action sought from military aircraft Some members of Congress believe military air tankers should be dispatched as soon as possible to keep raging wildfires from becoming disasters. And they hope to make that happen before more deadly wildfires occur like those in October that burned 750,000 acres over five counties, killing 22 people and destroying more than 5,500 homes. At least three congressmen from regions devastated by wildfires are pushing to override a provision in a Depression-Era act that precludes using military aircraft in aerial firefighting until all civilian air tankers have been committed....Organ Pipe 'under siege' due to crime Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, plagued by rampant smuggling of people and marijuana, has been named one of America's 10 most endangered national parks. The National Parks and Conservation Association says progress has been made since park ranger Kris Eggle was murdered along the border in 2002. But the group says Organ Pipe still needs more money to repair ecological damage and strengthen law enforcement. "This park is under siege and must get immediate attention," said Ron Tipton, vice president of the 300,000-member group. Organ Pipe borders Mexico for 30 miles, with that nation's busy Highway 2 often visible from the flimsy border fence....USFWS rejects Wyo wolf plan; Move derails gray wolf delisting efforts Plans to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list were derailed Tuesday when federal officials rejected Wyoming's controversial dual-classification plan for wolf management. "Delisting cannot be proposed at this time due to some significant concerns about portions of Wyoming's state law and wolf management plan," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve Williams wrote to Wyoming Game and Fish director Terry Cleveland. Wyoming's plan proposed classifying wolves outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and adjoining wilderness areas as predators. The wolf management plans crafted by Montana and Idaho officials were deemed "adequate," but wolves cannot be delisted in the West until all three states have Fish and Wildlife Service-approved plans. The decision pleased environmentalists and upset Wyoming politicians and ranchers....Wolf delisting stuck while feds wait for acceptable Wyoming plan The process toward delisting the wolf screeched to a halt Tuesday, when federal officials declared that Wyoming's wolf recovery plan simply isn't up to snuff. Both federal and state officials had said the complicated process of removing wolves from the endangered species list could begin this year. That isn't likely to happen now, unless Wyoming's state government undergoes a large and rapid transformation of its attitude toward wolves....Gray wolf delisting delayed: FWS cites Wyoming's predator designation Williams restated concerns about Wyoming's "dual classification" proposal that would consider some wolves to be predators, where they could be killed any time and in any way, and others as trophy game, subject to hunting and other regulations. The potential for unregulated killing and an inadequate monitoring plan "do not provide sufficient management controls to assure the service that the wolf population will remain above recovery levels," Williams wrote....LAWSUIT SEEKS REDRESS FOR MASSIVE ILLEGAL BIRD KILLS AT ALTAMONT PASS, CA, WIND FARMS The Center for Biological Diversity ("CBD") filed a lawsuit today against Florida energy producer FPL Group, Inc. (NYSE symbol: FPL) and Danish wind power company NEG Micon A/S for their part in the illegal ongoing killing of tens of thousands of protected birds by wind turbines at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area ("APWRA") in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Through their subsidiaries and associated entities, FPL Group and NEG Micon own or operate roughly half of the approximately 5,400 wind turbines at the APWRA. Each year, wind turbines at the APWRA kill up to 60 or more golden eagles and hundreds of other hawks, owls, and other protected raptors. These bird kills have continued for 20 years in flagrant violation of the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and several California Fish and Game Code provisions. The lawsuit alleges that these violations and bird kills are unlawful and unfair business practices under the California Business and Professions Code....Wolf population still doing well despite two deaths Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said the Mexican Gray Wolf population is still doing well despite the discovery of a dead wolf that was found in Apache Sitgreaves National Forest on Dec. 21. In December, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Field Coordinator John Oakleaf told the Courier that about 50 to 60 of the endangered species are alive in the wild. Arizona Game and Fish Nongame Biologist Dan Groebner verified this number on Thursday and said that pups who have survived until now have a high probability of surviving the winter....Study: Noise Machine Keeps Predators Off Property Conservation scientists may have hit upon the 21st century's answer to the good old-fashioned scarecrow. A motion-activated device which blasts out a cacophonous chorus of gunshots, helicopters, and other sounds, together with blinding flashes of strobe lighting, may be a highly effective tool in repelling wolves, bears, and other large carnivores. The fright device could be a valuable new tool in fighting the escalating problem of human-carnivore conflict, suggest conservationists behind a new study confirming its effectiveness. Currently when coyotes, mountain lions, and other predators threaten livestock, U.S. federal wildlife managers are forced to kill them.... Column: Return of the Wolf, Will the alpha predator change your hunting? By the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s last count in 2003, the Northern Rockies contained 747 wolves, including 46 breeding pairs. The population was growing at a 12 percent clip, a decrease from previous rates. Ed Bangs, the USFWS northwestern wolf recovery coordinator, believes that all the most suitable wolf habitat—free from conflicts with humans—has wolves. Yellowstone has the “highest density of wolves in the world,” reports the New York Times. Bangs estimates that their numbers will top out at 1,000; but that does not mean there will be 1,000 wolves in Yellowstone and none anywhere else....Interior Secretary: New Approach to Land Management Interior Secretary Gale Norton told participants at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting and convention the goal of the Bush administration’s management of the nation’s natural resources is cooperation rather than conflict. In an address to convention, Norton said the current administration has brought “a new approach” to managing federal lands, water resources and endangered species. “Too often in the past the relationship between Interior and farmers and ranchers has been one of antagonism over things like water rights, endangered species and cattle grazing on public lands,” Norton said. She said the administration has provided a "subtle but major shift in the direction of environmental policy.” She told the audience that there is “no reason” the Interior Department and agricultural producers should be at odds. “Each one of you is dedicated to taking care of the land and its wildlife. You are true conservationists,” she said....Feds, Idaho Power near agreement on snails Idaho Power Co. and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are close to reaching an agreement that would allow five Snake River hydropower plants to get relicensed and continue operating without harming endangered aquatic snails. The agreement will spell out a variety of operational changes, conservation measures and studies that Idaho Power will do in the coming years in the hopes of protecting the tiny snails from further harm, according to the federal agency and the company....Court backs phase-out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park A federal appeals court Tuesday dealt a blow to snowmobile enthusiasts when it rejected efforts to suspend a phase-out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks this winter. Lawyers for Wyoming and the snowmobile industry had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for an emergency suspension of a lower court's decision to impose a phase-out of snowmobiles in the park. They had asked for the emergency suspension to prevent irreparable harm to the snowmobile industry while the court considered an appeal of the lower court's decision to impose the phase-out. The court is not expected to rule on the actual appeal for at least several months....E-mails on creation flap 'swamp' Park Service Thousands of Americans on both sides of a heated debate over a book offered in a Grand Canyon gift shop have e-mailed their opinions to the National Park Service in the last several days. "I'm swamped," David Barna, chief of public affairs for the agency, told WorldNetDaily. Barna estimated the number of e-mails and phone calls to be "probably 2,000 easily." Causing the flow of e-mail is the controversy over a book for sale at the Grand Canyon that claims the famous area was formed by the Old Testament flood Noah survived and can be no older than a few thousand years. That contention has some scientists calling for the book to be pulled from store shelves.... Security lapses spurred firing U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa C. Chambers was removed from office after an Interior Department investigation revealed security lapses at the Statue of Liberty and at the Washington Monument four months ago on the anniversary of September 11. Top Interior Department officials confirmed the reasons for the firing. One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the security lapses "led to her demise." "The [inspector general] did several reports that pointed to security lapses, and the Park Service in response was putting demands on her to stop lowering her priorities and to start protecting the monuments," the official said. "The additional demands caused her to react negatively."....Escalante scientist on leave over relics charges The lead range scientist for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending a final review of allegations of misconduct, which include the theft of American Indian relics. Monument Manager Dave Hunsaker confirmed Monday that Gregg Christensen was relieved of his duties Thursday. Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's Office has declined to file charges against Christensen, noting the expired statute of limitations on the alleged crimes. The final decision on whether Christensen will retain his job is in the hands of the director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's state headquarters in Salt Lake City. In past similar cases, however, being placed on administrative leave with pay was a prelude to a termination....Wells, profits go through roof: Gas producers hit new highs in 2003 in rigs, production By all accounts, 2003 was a blockbuster year for Colorado's natural gas producers. A record 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day was produced, up 6 percent from the previous year, according to early estimates by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. A cubic foot is a standard measure of gas, and 6,000 cubic feet of gas is the equivalent of one barrel of oil. This jump was the result of unprecedented drilling, which resulted in a record 25,042 active wells from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2003. That's up 6 percent from the previous year. More drilling has boosted the bottom lines of Colorado and other gas companies to the tune of millions of dollars. Given the ballooning production and profits, some economists are questioning the Bush administration's policy to give billion of dollars in tax incentives to gas producers in the proposed energy bill....Lawsuit over pesticides blames EPA Attorneys representing farm workers in Washington and other states yesterday sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to adequately protect workers and the environment from the use of toxic pesticides. The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Seattle because one of the five plaintiffs, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, is based here, said attorneys for Earthjustice, a local legal group that focuses on environmental issues. Attorneys for the farm-worker groups, which include the United Farmworkers of America, claim that the EPA has continued to allow the use of two toxic pesticides, azinphos-methyl and phosmet, despite data showing the dangers of exposure to such chemicals.... Water Pump Case Tests Federal Law The court, which will hear arguments on Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by a small Indian tribe against Florida water authorities, will decide whether, legally speaking, the pump is adding pollutants to the Everglades or is simply transferring them between bodies of water that belong to the same large national system of waterways. If the court decides the pump adds pollutants, S-9 and similar pumping equipment could become subject to a stringent system of permits and pollution controls required under the Clean Water Act. The court is stepping in at a time when the nation's water agencies and developers are engaged in huge efforts to tap and reroute water to quench the thirst of expanding suburban communities.... River flows fatten Lees Ferry trout Efforts to improve conditions for endangered fish in the Grand Canyon are also helping trout-fishing upstream on the Colorado River, producing what one angler called "fat, feisty fish." The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation last week began a second year of experimental flows on the river from Glen Canyon Dam through the Grand Canyon. The flows are designed to slow trout spawning in the 16-mile stretch of the river between the dam and Lees Ferry, leaving fewer of the fish to swim downstream....Brucellosis may be problem for Yellowstone sheep Brucellosis may play some role in dieoffs of bighorn sheep in and around Yellowstone National Park, and it has been confirmed for the first time in other sheep deaths, a researcher said here Tuesday. An accidental exposure to brucellosis killed most of the bighorn sheep at a research facility in southeastern Wyoming, and a wild bighorn in the Jackson area has shown possible signs of exposure to the disease, said Terry Kreeger....S. Dakota to require test of cattle from Wyoming South Dakota will begin requiring all cattle coming from Wyoming for breeding purposes to be tested for brucellosis. Dr. Sam Holland, state veterinarian for the South Dakota Animal Industry Board, issued the order, which takes effect Feb. 1. The order requires all cattle from Wyoming over 18 months of age and intended for breeding purposes to be officially tested for brucellosis within 30 days of entering South Dakota, according to a news release from Holland's office....Plaintiffs claim Tyson contracts cost cattlemen billions The nation's largest packer used contracts with a "favored few" ranchers to dictate the price of cattle and cause thousands of cattlemen to lose billions of dollars, attorneys said in federal court Tuesday. But lawyers for IBP Inc., which merged with Arkansas-based Tyson Foods Inc. in 2001, countered that these contracts are based on the open-market price of cattle and do not undermine the market forces of supply and demand. Tuesday marked the first day of testimony in a nearly 8-year-old class-action lawsuit accusing Tyson of violating the federal Packers and Stockyards Act. The plaintiffs claim to represent as many as 30,000 cattlemen who sold cattle to IBP or Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. from February 1994 to October 2002, though Tyson says no one knows how big the group is....Welsh sheepdogs prove their worth in cowboy country SEVEN years ago the traditional Welsh sheepdog was threatened with extinction. But now the remarkable breed, with a passion for hard work, is making its mark across the globe. And yesterday Siân and Spot, two 10-week old puppies from mid Wales, were on their way to the United States to work and breed in Kansas cattle country. American ranchers, like farmers throughout the UK, Germany and Sweden, have fallen for the breed's amazing qualities, including its outstanding work rate....Developer plans hotel for FW Stockyards In Fort Worth, the Stockyards Historical District is about to get a new addition that many have awaited for years: a new family-friendly hotel right on Exchange Avenue. Dallas developer Thomas Kirkland said the facility, which will be part of the Amerisuites national chain, will be built in mission style, keeping with historical architecture. The Fort Worth stockyards. Longhorns and longnecks. The hotel will sit behind the Stockyards Visitor Center, next to the old horse and mule barns that still wait to be hitched to the 21st century....Ride 'em, cowboy: He's an advocate for the Old West's cowpokes of color She was 6 feet tall, smoked homemade cigars and was rumored to have broken more noses than anyone in central Montana. If you got her really mad, she might pull out the pair of six-shooters she was packin' -- or, if need be, go for her huge shotgun. And please, don't ask her to cook! Mary Fields was a cowgirl, not a housewife. She even closed down her own restaurant for serving lousy meals. She was more at home throwing down a few whiskeys the local bar....
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Tuesday, January 13, 2004
MAD COW NEWS
U.S., Canada to Work Together on Mad Cow President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin promised on Tuesday to work to reassure consumers that North American beef is safe to eat, as U.S. farmers surveyed by Reuters showed strong support for stricter livestock feed rules to prevent mad cow disease. Although more than 40 nations have cut off purchases of U.S. beef since the case was discovered Dec. 23, Canada has allowed shipments of certain beef cuts to continue. Ottawa reported its own first native case of the disease last May. "The best way to make sure that we're able to satisfy the consumers in both our countries -- as well as around the world -- is for there to be very close coordination on regulation, on information and on the science," Bush told reporters. He and Martin jointly spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a summit of Latin American states in Monterrey, Mexico. Agriculture ministers from Canada, Mexico and the United States will meet this week to discuss mad cow safeguards. Martin said that restoring beef trade would depend on "science-based solutions" reached by both nations. He did not elaborate....37,000 tons of U.S. beef for export in limbo About 37,000 tons of frozen or chilled beef industrywide are in transport or at the dock ready to go to countries that have banned U.S. imports since the first U.S. cow infected with mad cow disease was discovered last month, a meat company executive said on Tuesday. "They have not cleared customs," Mark Gustafson, senior vice president for the international division of Swift & Co., told about 100 ranchers at a symposium on mad cow at the National Western Stock Show. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of beef shipments to Asia are chilled and the rest frozen, he said, meaning the industry still had some time to work out the problem. Chilled beef is good for around 60 days, Gustafson said.... Japan says Canadian mad cow testing regime not sufficient to lift import ban Canada's plans to expand mad cow testing aren't sufficient to justify lifting an eight-month ban on imports of Canadian beef, Japan's agriculture minister was reported as saying Tuesday. Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei told Canadian Agriculture Minister Bob Speller it would be "difficult" to convince the Japanese public to accept a resumption of Canadian beef imports on the basis of the newly announced testing regime, a Japanese ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Speller, who wrapped up his mission to Asia on Tuesday, said he never expected Japan or South Korea would lift their borders during his visit....Japanese scientists meet with U.S.D.A. about mad cow Japanese scientists met with U.S. agriculture officials in Washington state Monday about the ongoing investigation into mad cow disease, as more cows from a Mabton dairy farm were killed. Meanwhile, a team of agriculture and health officials from Japan met with U.S. counterparts in Yakima to discuss the mad cow case. The delegation was not made available to the media. U.S. agriculture officials stressed the meetings were strictly a fact-finding mission and not a trade delegation....Bush pledges efforts to restore confidence in the beef industry U.S. President George W. Bush assured Canadian cattle farmers that his officials will work to restore confidence in the beef industry of both countries. In a further indication of warming Canada-U.S. relations, Bush touted the close integration of the two beef markets and gave no indication that that should change. "I'm confident that we will be able to assure those who buy Canadian and/or U.S. beef that the products they buy are safe," he told reporters with Prime Minister Paul Martin sitting at his side. "This is an issue that's going to require close co-ordination between our two countries. I mean, we got a lot of beef going across our border - we've got beef on the hoof and beef in the box."....Biggest US farm group backs mad cow trace-back system Delegates representing the 5.5 million members of the American Farm Bureau Federation voted on Tuesday to support a voluntary U.S. livestock identification system to help prevent mad cow and other dangerous diseases. Although members rejected a proposal for a mandatory ID system, leaders said the vote backing a voluntary program showed the United States' largest farm group was committed to ensuring American beef is safe to eat....As Americans shrug off mad cow, so does Wall St Investor concerns that consumers would shun beef after last month's discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease appear to have evaporated as shares of steakhouses and hamburger chains have snapped back to their previous levels....Poll: Farmers Oppose Testing All Cattle, Favor IDs Two-thirds of a sampling of American farmers polled by Reuters said they oppose mandatory testing of all U.S. cattle for mad cow disease, an approach used by Japan as a sure-fire way to ensure that deadly beef products do not enter the human food chain. A similar margin of 70 percent of farmers questioned for the Reuters survey said they want the Food and Drug Administration to ban cattle remains from being fed to all livestock as a safety precaution against mad cow disease. And more than half of those polled said the government should require identification tags for all U.S. cattle to allow faster tracking of animals if mad cow disease or another ailment is discovered....Cattle industry worries emerge The cattle industry is suffering under the shadow of mad cow disease and steps must be taken to remedy that - but those steps must be affordable and practical, Rep. George Nethercutt told area ranchers Monday. Audience comments ranged from asking that beef imports be limited until the domestic market can recover, to questioning how the disease might be detected in downer cattle now that they are no longer going to slaughterhouses. Audience member Sheryl Cox sharply criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture's handling of the mad cow case. Early in the investigation it appeared likely the cow was from Canada, but the USDA delayed announcing the possibility because of concerns about the political fallout in U.S.-Canadian relations, she believes. In the meantime, cattle prices fell and countries banned U.S. beef imports. "They knew (the cow was from Canada), and nothing was said,' Cox said. "...I'd like you to hold USDA's feet to the fire.'....Consumer Group Says Mad Cow-Like Disease May Already Be Killing Americans; Organic Consumers Association Releases Report, Calls for Mandatory Reporting of Sporadic CJD The Organic Consumers Association, a nationwide citizen grassroots lobby, is releasing their latest report on the mad cow disease crisis written by expert Michael Greger, M.D., now available at http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/gregercjd.cfm. New research suggests that some of the hundreds of Americans dying of the sporadic form of CJD (Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease) every year may in fact be dying because of mad cow disease. And since autopsy studies done at Yale and elsewhere have shown that a few percent of Alzheimer's deaths may in fact be sporadic CJD, not hundreds, but thousands, of Americans may already be dying because of mad cow disease every year. Five years ago this week, the Center for Food Safety, the Humane Farming Association, the Center for Media & Democracy, and ten families of CJD victims petitioned the FDA and the CDC to immediately enact a national CJD monitoring system. The petition was denied. Now that mad cow disease has been confirmed in the United States, The OCA is calling on the CDC to immediately enact an active national surveillance program for CJD.... Mad cow aftershocks Charlie Myers will move 1,300 head of cattle through his auction barn during most Friday sales here. But Friday, Myers sold only about 400 head at Cattleman's Livestock Auction. So why was he smiling after the last bunch - a half dozen rangy, snorty animals from Catron County - were auctioned off? Because about 400 is about twice as many cattle as he sold at his previous auction on Jan. 2. The Jan. 2 sale was his first after the U.S. mad cow scare and the smallest sale Myers has had during four decades in the business. "I'm very much encouraged," he said Friday. "There was more activity today. Less people are nervous." Calves sold for 10 cents a pound more on Friday than they had the previous week and cows were up 8 cents a pound....Livestock Association Seeks USDA Investigation On Insurance Decision The Livestock Marketing Association is asking USDA Secretary Ann Veneman "for an immediate investigation and public explanation" of the circumstances surrounding the Dec. 23 decision by USDA's Risk Management Agency to stop taking applications for specific coverages of Livestock Risk Protection insurance. An LMA release called the decision "abrupt, arbitrary and unfair," and said it "undoubtedly has affected the future viability of LRP." A letter to Veneman from LMA President Billy Perrin said: "It is particularly upsetting, to us and to those whose applications for LRP coverage had been filed with the Agency, that RMA cited the finding of (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or) mad-cow disease in Washington state, as the reason for the suspension." The LRP was marketed, Perrin said in the letter, "to producers from the very outset as a way to protect against the kind of severe market price fluctuations that we have seen since the announcement of the BSE finding....Big falloff expected in cost of beef in the U.S. The loss of export markets for U.S. beef following last month's discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States will significantly lower cattle prices in 2004, the Agriculture Department said Monday. U.S. cattle prices were forecast in the range of $72 to $78 per hundredweight, down from last month's government estimate of $84 to $91 per hundredweight for this year. Cheaper prices are being reflected in the meat sections at supermarkets. Last week, Chicago supermarkets were advertising boneless round tip roasts for $1.99 a pound, a savings of $3 per pound. Retailers also were promoting beef in Washington, D.C., with "buy one, get one free" roasts. In Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading, live cattle futures contracts for February delivery closed at $74.70 per pound....
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U.S., Canada to Work Together on Mad Cow President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin promised on Tuesday to work to reassure consumers that North American beef is safe to eat, as U.S. farmers surveyed by Reuters showed strong support for stricter livestock feed rules to prevent mad cow disease. Although more than 40 nations have cut off purchases of U.S. beef since the case was discovered Dec. 23, Canada has allowed shipments of certain beef cuts to continue. Ottawa reported its own first native case of the disease last May. "The best way to make sure that we're able to satisfy the consumers in both our countries -- as well as around the world -- is for there to be very close coordination on regulation, on information and on the science," Bush told reporters. He and Martin jointly spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a summit of Latin American states in Monterrey, Mexico. Agriculture ministers from Canada, Mexico and the United States will meet this week to discuss mad cow safeguards. Martin said that restoring beef trade would depend on "science-based solutions" reached by both nations. He did not elaborate....37,000 tons of U.S. beef for export in limbo About 37,000 tons of frozen or chilled beef industrywide are in transport or at the dock ready to go to countries that have banned U.S. imports since the first U.S. cow infected with mad cow disease was discovered last month, a meat company executive said on Tuesday. "They have not cleared customs," Mark Gustafson, senior vice president for the international division of Swift & Co., told about 100 ranchers at a symposium on mad cow at the National Western Stock Show. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of beef shipments to Asia are chilled and the rest frozen, he said, meaning the industry still had some time to work out the problem. Chilled beef is good for around 60 days, Gustafson said.... Japan says Canadian mad cow testing regime not sufficient to lift import ban Canada's plans to expand mad cow testing aren't sufficient to justify lifting an eight-month ban on imports of Canadian beef, Japan's agriculture minister was reported as saying Tuesday. Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei told Canadian Agriculture Minister Bob Speller it would be "difficult" to convince the Japanese public to accept a resumption of Canadian beef imports on the basis of the newly announced testing regime, a Japanese ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Speller, who wrapped up his mission to Asia on Tuesday, said he never expected Japan or South Korea would lift their borders during his visit....Japanese scientists meet with U.S.D.A. about mad cow Japanese scientists met with U.S. agriculture officials in Washington state Monday about the ongoing investigation into mad cow disease, as more cows from a Mabton dairy farm were killed. Meanwhile, a team of agriculture and health officials from Japan met with U.S. counterparts in Yakima to discuss the mad cow case. The delegation was not made available to the media. U.S. agriculture officials stressed the meetings were strictly a fact-finding mission and not a trade delegation....Bush pledges efforts to restore confidence in the beef industry U.S. President George W. Bush assured Canadian cattle farmers that his officials will work to restore confidence in the beef industry of both countries. In a further indication of warming Canada-U.S. relations, Bush touted the close integration of the two beef markets and gave no indication that that should change. "I'm confident that we will be able to assure those who buy Canadian and/or U.S. beef that the products they buy are safe," he told reporters with Prime Minister Paul Martin sitting at his side. "This is an issue that's going to require close co-ordination between our two countries. I mean, we got a lot of beef going across our border - we've got beef on the hoof and beef in the box."....Biggest US farm group backs mad cow trace-back system Delegates representing the 5.5 million members of the American Farm Bureau Federation voted on Tuesday to support a voluntary U.S. livestock identification system to help prevent mad cow and other dangerous diseases. Although members rejected a proposal for a mandatory ID system, leaders said the vote backing a voluntary program showed the United States' largest farm group was committed to ensuring American beef is safe to eat....As Americans shrug off mad cow, so does Wall St Investor concerns that consumers would shun beef after last month's discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease appear to have evaporated as shares of steakhouses and hamburger chains have snapped back to their previous levels....Poll: Farmers Oppose Testing All Cattle, Favor IDs Two-thirds of a sampling of American farmers polled by Reuters said they oppose mandatory testing of all U.S. cattle for mad cow disease, an approach used by Japan as a sure-fire way to ensure that deadly beef products do not enter the human food chain. A similar margin of 70 percent of farmers questioned for the Reuters survey said they want the Food and Drug Administration to ban cattle remains from being fed to all livestock as a safety precaution against mad cow disease. And more than half of those polled said the government should require identification tags for all U.S. cattle to allow faster tracking of animals if mad cow disease or another ailment is discovered....Cattle industry worries emerge The cattle industry is suffering under the shadow of mad cow disease and steps must be taken to remedy that - but those steps must be affordable and practical, Rep. George Nethercutt told area ranchers Monday. Audience comments ranged from asking that beef imports be limited until the domestic market can recover, to questioning how the disease might be detected in downer cattle now that they are no longer going to slaughterhouses. Audience member Sheryl Cox sharply criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture's handling of the mad cow case. Early in the investigation it appeared likely the cow was from Canada, but the USDA delayed announcing the possibility because of concerns about the political fallout in U.S.-Canadian relations, she believes. In the meantime, cattle prices fell and countries banned U.S. beef imports. "They knew (the cow was from Canada), and nothing was said,' Cox said. "...I'd like you to hold USDA's feet to the fire.'....Consumer Group Says Mad Cow-Like Disease May Already Be Killing Americans; Organic Consumers Association Releases Report, Calls for Mandatory Reporting of Sporadic CJD The Organic Consumers Association, a nationwide citizen grassroots lobby, is releasing their latest report on the mad cow disease crisis written by expert Michael Greger, M.D., now available at http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/gregercjd.cfm. New research suggests that some of the hundreds of Americans dying of the sporadic form of CJD (Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease) every year may in fact be dying because of mad cow disease. And since autopsy studies done at Yale and elsewhere have shown that a few percent of Alzheimer's deaths may in fact be sporadic CJD, not hundreds, but thousands, of Americans may already be dying because of mad cow disease every year. Five years ago this week, the Center for Food Safety, the Humane Farming Association, the Center for Media & Democracy, and ten families of CJD victims petitioned the FDA and the CDC to immediately enact a national CJD monitoring system. The petition was denied. Now that mad cow disease has been confirmed in the United States, The OCA is calling on the CDC to immediately enact an active national surveillance program for CJD.... Mad cow aftershocks Charlie Myers will move 1,300 head of cattle through his auction barn during most Friday sales here. But Friday, Myers sold only about 400 head at Cattleman's Livestock Auction. So why was he smiling after the last bunch - a half dozen rangy, snorty animals from Catron County - were auctioned off? Because about 400 is about twice as many cattle as he sold at his previous auction on Jan. 2. The Jan. 2 sale was his first after the U.S. mad cow scare and the smallest sale Myers has had during four decades in the business. "I'm very much encouraged," he said Friday. "There was more activity today. Less people are nervous." Calves sold for 10 cents a pound more on Friday than they had the previous week and cows were up 8 cents a pound....Livestock Association Seeks USDA Investigation On Insurance Decision The Livestock Marketing Association is asking USDA Secretary Ann Veneman "for an immediate investigation and public explanation" of the circumstances surrounding the Dec. 23 decision by USDA's Risk Management Agency to stop taking applications for specific coverages of Livestock Risk Protection insurance. An LMA release called the decision "abrupt, arbitrary and unfair," and said it "undoubtedly has affected the future viability of LRP." A letter to Veneman from LMA President Billy Perrin said: "It is particularly upsetting, to us and to those whose applications for LRP coverage had been filed with the Agency, that RMA cited the finding of (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or) mad-cow disease in Washington state, as the reason for the suspension." The LRP was marketed, Perrin said in the letter, "to producers from the very outset as a way to protect against the kind of severe market price fluctuations that we have seen since the announcement of the BSE finding....Big falloff expected in cost of beef in the U.S. The loss of export markets for U.S. beef following last month's discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States will significantly lower cattle prices in 2004, the Agriculture Department said Monday. U.S. cattle prices were forecast in the range of $72 to $78 per hundredweight, down from last month's government estimate of $84 to $91 per hundredweight for this year. Cheaper prices are being reflected in the meat sections at supermarkets. Last week, Chicago supermarkets were advertising boneless round tip roasts for $1.99 a pound, a savings of $3 per pound. Retailers also were promoting beef in Washington, D.C., with "buy one, get one free" roasts. In Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading, live cattle futures contracts for February delivery closed at $74.70 per pound....
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For Immediate Release
January 12, 2003
THREE PLEAD GUILTY TO EARTH LIBERATION ACTIONS - RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
The ELF Press Office has learned that three self-identified members of the Earth Liberation Front have plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to destroy by fire vehicles and property used in interstate commerce as a result of ELF-claimed actions that took place in and around Richmond, Virginia in 2002. Adam Blackwell, Aaron Linas, and John Wade plead guilty to the charges separately on December 18, January 7, and January 12th.
Specifically, the three plead guilty to acts of earth liberation that incurred over $200,000 in damages over the course of a one-year period which included:
* damage to the gas and hydraulic tanks of construction vehicles as well as electrical systems on those vehicles
* the defacement of glass windows at McDonald's and Burger King restaurants with etching cream;
* monkeywrenching of the electrical systems, doors, and windows of homes under
construction in Goochland County;
* attempts to destroy a crane and other construction vehicles being used at a construction site for the Short Pump Town Center;
* etching "ELF" and "SUV" on the windows and bodies of 25 SUVs at the Universal
Ford dealership.
* the destruction of various SUVs, and Jeeps owned by dealerships and individuals.
Sentencing for the three will occur in April, though news reports indicate they have already agreed to pay restitution of $200,000 as part of the plea agreement.
Although these arrests will impact the individuals involved, and the community in which they live, this does not pose a problem for the Earth Liberation Front as a whole. The ELF operates using the strategy of leaderless resistance, where individuals and groups who carry out actions never know or meet others who may also be active. This means that even though one group may be broken up through legal action such as this, others involved in the ELF will not be affected.
In the history of the ELF, there have been very few arrests and even fewer convictions. None of these law-enforcement actions have put an end to the Earth Liberation Front in North America, which in 2003 had a record-setting year in terms of total property damage.
The ELF Press Office supports those who are facing repression at the hands of state and federal law enforcement and is available for e-mail interviews concerning this matter.
ELF Press Office
elfpress@resist.ca
http://www.earthliberationfront.com
Permalink
January 12, 2003
THREE PLEAD GUILTY TO EARTH LIBERATION ACTIONS - RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
The ELF Press Office has learned that three self-identified members of the Earth Liberation Front have plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to destroy by fire vehicles and property used in interstate commerce as a result of ELF-claimed actions that took place in and around Richmond, Virginia in 2002. Adam Blackwell, Aaron Linas, and John Wade plead guilty to the charges separately on December 18, January 7, and January 12th.
Specifically, the three plead guilty to acts of earth liberation that incurred over $200,000 in damages over the course of a one-year period which included:
* damage to the gas and hydraulic tanks of construction vehicles as well as electrical systems on those vehicles
* the defacement of glass windows at McDonald's and Burger King restaurants with etching cream;
* monkeywrenching of the electrical systems, doors, and windows of homes under
construction in Goochland County;
* attempts to destroy a crane and other construction vehicles being used at a construction site for the Short Pump Town Center;
* etching "ELF" and "SUV" on the windows and bodies of 25 SUVs at the Universal
Ford dealership.
* the destruction of various SUVs, and Jeeps owned by dealerships and individuals.
Sentencing for the three will occur in April, though news reports indicate they have already agreed to pay restitution of $200,000 as part of the plea agreement.
Although these arrests will impact the individuals involved, and the community in which they live, this does not pose a problem for the Earth Liberation Front as a whole. The ELF operates using the strategy of leaderless resistance, where individuals and groups who carry out actions never know or meet others who may also be active. This means that even though one group may be broken up through legal action such as this, others involved in the ELF will not be affected.
In the history of the ELF, there have been very few arrests and even fewer convictions. None of these law-enforcement actions have put an end to the Earth Liberation Front in North America, which in 2003 had a record-setting year in terms of total property damage.
The ELF Press Office supports those who are facing repression at the hands of state and federal law enforcement and is available for e-mail interviews concerning this matter.
ELF Press Office
elfpress@resist.ca
http://www.earthliberationfront.com
Permalink
Monday, January 12, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Report: Supervisory mistakes led to firefighter deaths A series of mistakes by fire managers at all levels of the Salmon-Challis National Forest resulted in the deaths of two firefighters working on the Cramer Fire this summer near Salmon, according to a report issued by the National Forest Service today. Jeff Allen, 24, of Salmon, and Shane Heath, 22, of Melba, were killed fighting a fire July 22 in the Salmon River Canyon when they were overrun by flames while trying to create a helicopter landing site. Even though weather and fire conditions made helicopter pickup the primary escape route for Allen and Heath, neither of the two helicopters working on the fire were available to lift them out. Allen asked for a helicopter removal, but it took 15 minutes before a helicopter was able to get there; when it arrived, conditions were too smokey to land, according to the report. Allen and Heath died minutes later after being overrun by the fire. The 1,500 page report, issued today after nearly six months of investigation, revealed several factors that led to the deaths of Allen and Heath, including:....Click here for the entire report....Forest Service offers to cancel 20 Tongass timber sales The U.S. Forest Service has offered to cancel 20 completed timber sales after the agency determined they were uneconomical. The agency determined that if the companies cut the timber in the Tongass National Forest anytime soon they would lose too much money under current market conditions. Battered by low prices, foreign competition and tightening restrictions on logging, the industry welcomed the move. "I'm glad it happened. It's something we've been complaining about for five years. The sales were poorly designed and the mills were more or less forced to purchase them because there was nothing economic to bid on," said Owen Graham, executive director of the Ketchikan-based Alaska Forest Association, a timber industry trade group....Editorial: Keeping OHVs on track It appears the U.S. Forest Service intends to get serious about keeping off-highway vehicles on the "straight and narrow," so to speak, and that's good news for everyone who visits the country's forests. The agency has formed a team to come up with ways to limit OHV use to appropriate trails and keep motorized vehicles from damaging sensitive ecosystems when they are driven miles across forest land where they don't belong. A plan to set limits is vital. Even OHV advocacy groups recognize the need for it. But the Forest Service faces real challenges to getting it done....Humans a threat to Skagit bald eagles, biologists fear It was morning, their prime feeding time. But as one motorboat after another roared by, these birds weren't diving for food. They rarely even moved except to soar between trees, staying high above the fray. Yesterday's busy scene full of fishermen and eagle-watching tourists illustrated a trend that has long concerned wildlife biologists. Here on the Skagit, where 500 or more eagle watchers may show up on a sunny day, people are disrupting the birds' feeding. The question is whether all that disruption affects the survival of these birds, which still are considered threatened with extinction....Wolf opinion expected this week, some groups not optimistic about outcome The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to weigh in on Montana, Idaho and Wyoming's plans to manage gray wolves soon, according to state and federal officials. If the state plans are accepted the wolves could be taken off the endangered species list and management of them could be transferred from the federal government to the states. "The service is planning as soon as possible to get back to the states about their plans," Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery said. "I am not going to put a date on it, but it is soon." Wyoming Chief Deputy Attorney General Michael O'Donnell said that he has been told that a response could come as early as Thursday ....Endangered Species Act Targeted: House Resources Chairman Plans to 'Break It Down' The rancher who chairs the House committee for environmental policy says he's finished trying to recast the Endangered Species Act in one fell swoop. Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.) says now he wants to take it on bit by bit. Pombo, who contends environmental regulations too often infringe on the rights of farmers and homeowners, said the endangered species law produces more lawsuits and property disputes than it provides protection for wildlife. It is a point he has argued since he was handed the task of rewriting the law in 1995. The Endangered Species Act requires the government to use "the best scientific and commercial data available" in choosing animals and plants to list. Listed species are supposed to be protected from potentially harmful activities. More than 1,200 plants and animals are listed as threatened or endangered. Pombo said his first focus will be to add what he and the law's critics call "sound science" provisions. He says the requirement for the best available data is too vague; he wants the law to demand empirical or peer-reviewed standards. Next, he wants to tackle how critical habitats are designated....Water Districts Hail $26 Million Award as Just Compensation Due to Losses from Endangered Species Act Several California water district officials today praised a federal court decision awarding them approximately $26 million for water taken by the United States under the federal Endangered Species Act. Judge John Wiese of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has determined that a number of water districts, and their water users, in the San Joaquin Valley of California must be compensated for water taken by the United States under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The December 31, 2003, decision concludes that the fair market value of the water taken was approximately $14 million at the time of the take. It is expected that the final judgment in the case, with interest and litigation expenses, will be approximately $26 million. The case was brought by the districts and water users involved to recover compensation under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution for a taking of the water for federal purposes by the federal government. The water was taken between 1992 to 1994 for the benefit of species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. The decision comes after an earlier ruling in the case that the federal government was liable under the Fifth Amendment for the taking of the State Water Project (SWP) water, and a lengthy trial to assess the actual amount of water taken and its value. In its earlier ruling concerning the taking of water for ESA purposes, the court was direct and to the point: "The federal government is certainly free to preserve the fish; it must simply pay for the water it takes to do so."....Bush administration may appeal Yellowstone snowmobile ruling The Bush administration has taken a step toward a possible appeal of a judge's ruling that ordered the National Park Service to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The Justice Department filed a notice Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to preserve the Bush administration's right to lodge an appeal....Mojave Cross dispute continues An effort to save the Mojave Cross isn't sitting well with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. The cross on federal land and federal legislation designed to save it are both unconstitutional, the group argues in a brief filed recently in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, the ACLU is disputing the U.S. Justice Department's argument that the court should consider the department's appeal "moot" and not rule on it. Supporters of the cross say its primary purpose is to serve as a war memorial, not a religious symbol....Fees for milk ads wind up in court A federal appeals court considered Monday whether a dairy-promotion program known for putting milk mustaches on celebrities is unconstitutional because it forces all farmers to pay for the ads, even if they disagree with them. The case, brought by a couple who operate a farm in Pennsylvania, is one of a number of challenges to government marketing programs that produce ads for agricultural products. A federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled in July that ranchers could not be forced to pay a $1-per-head fee on cattle to support the marketing campaign that spawned the slogan "Beef: It's what's for dinner." An appeals court in Cincinnati struck down a similar fee in October that had supported the advertisements calling pork "the other white meat." In both cases the judges said federal regulations requiring farmers to pay for the marketing efforts violated their right to free speech....Calf in Arizona positive for TB A calf in Pinal County has tested positive for tuberculosis but never gave milk and poses no risk to humans, the state agriculture department said Monday. The calf was part of a 300-head herd that is scheduled to be shipped out of state. The herd was placed under quarantine. Regulators won't know until Wednesday whether any of the animals will have to be destroyed....Suit accuses Tyson of illegal cattle buying A jury on Tuesday will begin hearing a nearly 8-year-old lawsuit accusing the nation's largest packer of using illegal cattle-buying practices to help manipulate beef prices. The suit alleges IBP Inc., which merged with Tyson Foods Inc. in 2001, violated the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 by paying higher prices to producers who enter exclusive agreements and by conspiring to fix prices paid on the open market. Tyson counters that these so-called marketing agreements are legitimate business practices and do not subvert the market principles of supply and demand.... Political Prisoner? Luther Wallace "Wally" Klump recently marked his 70th birthday. He could not celebrate on the family ranch with his wife, children and grandchildren. The old rancher turned 70 in the cell of an Arizona penitentiary. Klump is not in prison for murder, rape, drugs or any of the common offenses against society; his offense is one that astounds the most hardened and cynical criminals in the penal complex where he is housed. Klump’s "crime" boiled down to "trespassing" cows on Bureau of Land Management property in Arizona’s Dos Cabezas Mountains. His fellow inmates understood. For his birthday, they made a card with a picture of a grazing cow and a bold caption "BLM Sucks!"....
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Report: Supervisory mistakes led to firefighter deaths A series of mistakes by fire managers at all levels of the Salmon-Challis National Forest resulted in the deaths of two firefighters working on the Cramer Fire this summer near Salmon, according to a report issued by the National Forest Service today. Jeff Allen, 24, of Salmon, and Shane Heath, 22, of Melba, were killed fighting a fire July 22 in the Salmon River Canyon when they were overrun by flames while trying to create a helicopter landing site. Even though weather and fire conditions made helicopter pickup the primary escape route for Allen and Heath, neither of the two helicopters working on the fire were available to lift them out. Allen asked for a helicopter removal, but it took 15 minutes before a helicopter was able to get there; when it arrived, conditions were too smokey to land, according to the report. Allen and Heath died minutes later after being overrun by the fire. The 1,500 page report, issued today after nearly six months of investigation, revealed several factors that led to the deaths of Allen and Heath, including:....Click here for the entire report....Forest Service offers to cancel 20 Tongass timber sales The U.S. Forest Service has offered to cancel 20 completed timber sales after the agency determined they were uneconomical. The agency determined that if the companies cut the timber in the Tongass National Forest anytime soon they would lose too much money under current market conditions. Battered by low prices, foreign competition and tightening restrictions on logging, the industry welcomed the move. "I'm glad it happened. It's something we've been complaining about for five years. The sales were poorly designed and the mills were more or less forced to purchase them because there was nothing economic to bid on," said Owen Graham, executive director of the Ketchikan-based Alaska Forest Association, a timber industry trade group....Editorial: Keeping OHVs on track It appears the U.S. Forest Service intends to get serious about keeping off-highway vehicles on the "straight and narrow," so to speak, and that's good news for everyone who visits the country's forests. The agency has formed a team to come up with ways to limit OHV use to appropriate trails and keep motorized vehicles from damaging sensitive ecosystems when they are driven miles across forest land where they don't belong. A plan to set limits is vital. Even OHV advocacy groups recognize the need for it. But the Forest Service faces real challenges to getting it done....Humans a threat to Skagit bald eagles, biologists fear It was morning, their prime feeding time. But as one motorboat after another roared by, these birds weren't diving for food. They rarely even moved except to soar between trees, staying high above the fray. Yesterday's busy scene full of fishermen and eagle-watching tourists illustrated a trend that has long concerned wildlife biologists. Here on the Skagit, where 500 or more eagle watchers may show up on a sunny day, people are disrupting the birds' feeding. The question is whether all that disruption affects the survival of these birds, which still are considered threatened with extinction....Wolf opinion expected this week, some groups not optimistic about outcome The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to weigh in on Montana, Idaho and Wyoming's plans to manage gray wolves soon, according to state and federal officials. If the state plans are accepted the wolves could be taken off the endangered species list and management of them could be transferred from the federal government to the states. "The service is planning as soon as possible to get back to the states about their plans," Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery said. "I am not going to put a date on it, but it is soon." Wyoming Chief Deputy Attorney General Michael O'Donnell said that he has been told that a response could come as early as Thursday ....Endangered Species Act Targeted: House Resources Chairman Plans to 'Break It Down' The rancher who chairs the House committee for environmental policy says he's finished trying to recast the Endangered Species Act in one fell swoop. Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.) says now he wants to take it on bit by bit. Pombo, who contends environmental regulations too often infringe on the rights of farmers and homeowners, said the endangered species law produces more lawsuits and property disputes than it provides protection for wildlife. It is a point he has argued since he was handed the task of rewriting the law in 1995. The Endangered Species Act requires the government to use "the best scientific and commercial data available" in choosing animals and plants to list. Listed species are supposed to be protected from potentially harmful activities. More than 1,200 plants and animals are listed as threatened or endangered. Pombo said his first focus will be to add what he and the law's critics call "sound science" provisions. He says the requirement for the best available data is too vague; he wants the law to demand empirical or peer-reviewed standards. Next, he wants to tackle how critical habitats are designated....Water Districts Hail $26 Million Award as Just Compensation Due to Losses from Endangered Species Act Several California water district officials today praised a federal court decision awarding them approximately $26 million for water taken by the United States under the federal Endangered Species Act. Judge John Wiese of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has determined that a number of water districts, and their water users, in the San Joaquin Valley of California must be compensated for water taken by the United States under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The December 31, 2003, decision concludes that the fair market value of the water taken was approximately $14 million at the time of the take. It is expected that the final judgment in the case, with interest and litigation expenses, will be approximately $26 million. The case was brought by the districts and water users involved to recover compensation under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution for a taking of the water for federal purposes by the federal government. The water was taken between 1992 to 1994 for the benefit of species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. The decision comes after an earlier ruling in the case that the federal government was liable under the Fifth Amendment for the taking of the State Water Project (SWP) water, and a lengthy trial to assess the actual amount of water taken and its value. In its earlier ruling concerning the taking of water for ESA purposes, the court was direct and to the point: "The federal government is certainly free to preserve the fish; it must simply pay for the water it takes to do so."....Bush administration may appeal Yellowstone snowmobile ruling The Bush administration has taken a step toward a possible appeal of a judge's ruling that ordered the National Park Service to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The Justice Department filed a notice Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to preserve the Bush administration's right to lodge an appeal....Mojave Cross dispute continues An effort to save the Mojave Cross isn't sitting well with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. The cross on federal land and federal legislation designed to save it are both unconstitutional, the group argues in a brief filed recently in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, the ACLU is disputing the U.S. Justice Department's argument that the court should consider the department's appeal "moot" and not rule on it. Supporters of the cross say its primary purpose is to serve as a war memorial, not a religious symbol....Fees for milk ads wind up in court A federal appeals court considered Monday whether a dairy-promotion program known for putting milk mustaches on celebrities is unconstitutional because it forces all farmers to pay for the ads, even if they disagree with them. The case, brought by a couple who operate a farm in Pennsylvania, is one of a number of challenges to government marketing programs that produce ads for agricultural products. A federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled in July that ranchers could not be forced to pay a $1-per-head fee on cattle to support the marketing campaign that spawned the slogan "Beef: It's what's for dinner." An appeals court in Cincinnati struck down a similar fee in October that had supported the advertisements calling pork "the other white meat." In both cases the judges said federal regulations requiring farmers to pay for the marketing efforts violated their right to free speech....Calf in Arizona positive for TB A calf in Pinal County has tested positive for tuberculosis but never gave milk and poses no risk to humans, the state agriculture department said Monday. The calf was part of a 300-head herd that is scheduled to be shipped out of state. The herd was placed under quarantine. Regulators won't know until Wednesday whether any of the animals will have to be destroyed....Suit accuses Tyson of illegal cattle buying A jury on Tuesday will begin hearing a nearly 8-year-old lawsuit accusing the nation's largest packer of using illegal cattle-buying practices to help manipulate beef prices. The suit alleges IBP Inc., which merged with Tyson Foods Inc. in 2001, violated the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 by paying higher prices to producers who enter exclusive agreements and by conspiring to fix prices paid on the open market. Tyson counters that these so-called marketing agreements are legitimate business practices and do not subvert the market principles of supply and demand.... Political Prisoner? Luther Wallace "Wally" Klump recently marked his 70th birthday. He could not celebrate on the family ranch with his wife, children and grandchildren. The old rancher turned 70 in the cell of an Arizona penitentiary. Klump is not in prison for murder, rape, drugs or any of the common offenses against society; his offense is one that astounds the most hardened and cynical criminals in the penal complex where he is housed. Klump’s "crime" boiled down to "trespassing" cows on Bureau of Land Management property in Arizona’s Dos Cabezas Mountains. His fellow inmates understood. For his birthday, they made a card with a picture of a grazing cow and a bold caption "BLM Sucks!"....
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MAD COW NEWS
U.S. Cattle Prices Tumble on Mad Cow U.S. cattle prices tumbled in the Chicago markets on Monday after the U.S. Agriculture Department slashed its estimate for 2004 beef exports by 90 percent after the first U.S. case of deadly mad cow disease. "I think reality finally dawned on the CME cattle floor that the export markets will not reopen in weeks or even months,'' said Ann Barnhardt, livestock analyst with Colorado-based HedgersEdge.com. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live cattle futures for February delivery closed 1.225 cents lower at 74.700 cents per pound. That is down 18 percent since the U.S. Agriculture Department on Dec. 23 announced the first case of mad cow disease in the United States in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state....Abbott Laboratories Submits Application to U.S. Department of Agriculture For Mad Cow Disease Test Responding to the call for applications issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week, Abbott Laboratories today announced that a Veterinary Biological Product License Application for its bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) test was submitted and is pending review by the USDA. Abbott had previously submitted BSE test data, along with draft product labeling, to the USDA in October 2003. In addition, the USDA performed inspections of the test's manufacturing site in Ireland and Abbott's distribution center in the United States. To date, the Enfer BSE test has been approved for cattle testing by the European Union and Japan, where large scale BSE testing is mandatory. The test detects the presence of the abnormal proteins believed to cause BSE -- commonly known as mad cow disease....Poll: U.S. Still Eating Beef Despite Mad Cow Case Few Americans have changed their beef-eating habits despite discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, according to a poll released on Monday by the largest U.S. farm group. The survey of 1,000 consumers, conducted on Saturday and Sunday by the American Farm Bureau Federation, found 74 percent have not changed their beef consumption. Another 15 percent said they were eating less beef while 7 percent said they were eating more. "Consumers are largely standing behind America's beef producers," said Bob Stallman, president of the 5.5 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation. The farm group plans to conduct three more weekly polls to track consumer confidence in beef, a spokesman said....UN agency: Mad cow precautions in many countries still insufficient Measures taken by many countries to screen cattle for mad cow disease are not enough to prevent the spread of the infection and reassure consumers, a UN food agency said Monday. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States in December highlights the need for wider testing programs and the stricter application of preventive measures in countries where the disease is known to be present. But the UN agency said testing should be done on all cattle older than 30 months, an age beyond which the disease becomes detectable, as a measure to enhance consumer confidence....Japan boost imports of Australian beef Japan's buying more Australian beef, following its ban on U-S beef imports because of mad cow disease. A spokesman for Meat and Livestock Australia, Dr Peter Barnard, says a Japanese delegation last week accepted an offer from the Australian beef industry to increase shipments to Japan. He says demand is already rising. "Last week in the Japanese wholesale beef market prices for Australian product increased significantly and from talking to meat exporters from Australia there's increased interest and increased orders already flowing through for Australian product," says Dr Barnard .... Madcow kills big bull sale in New Mexico Concerns over mad cow disease forced the cancellation of a large sale of bulls this week near New Mexico's border with Mexico. The annual International All-Breeds Bull Sale, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, was to be a chance for Mexican ranchers to buy breeding bulls from New Mexico ranchers, the Albuquerque Journal reported Monday...Mad cow ranks third among consumer food concerns Even after weeks of intense and emotionally charged coverage by the news media, a poll released today by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) shows that mad cow disease ranks third among consumers' food-related health concerns. Food poisoning and food-borne bacteria remain the greatest concerns, followed by mad cow, irradiated meat and cloned foods....Canadian agriculture minister fails to persuade South Korea to lift beef ban Canada's agriculture minister petitioned South Korea on Monday to begin a dialogue on lifting a ban on Canadian beef amid mad cow fears but failed to win any quick concessions. Soth Korea said it will keep the ban in place but agreed to send experts to examine safety measures taken by Canada since a case of mad cow disease was uncovered last year....More Suspect Cows at Quincy-Area Farm Identified Seven cows believed to be part of the same Canadian herd as the first U.S. mad-cow case have been traced to another Washington state farm, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said over the weekend. The cows linked to the infected Holstein have been located on a dairy farm near Quincy, Grant County, about 60 miles north of Yakima. A state quarantine order was being prepared yesterday but has not been served on the farm, said Washington State Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Mary Beth Lang....Mad cow's untold story Below the drumbeat of reassurances from government and the cattle industry that mad cow disease poses no threat to public health, a small universe of scientists working on a family of related illnesses are finding disturbing evidence to the contrary. Several little-publicized studies, as well as ongoing research at a government laboratory in Montana, continue to spark questions about human susceptibility not only to mad cow, but to sister diseases such as chronic wasting disease that mainly affects deer and elk, and to scrapie, which infects sheep. Mice research and clusters of cases where humans contracted a disease similar to mad cow also has some scientists wondering if consuming infected meat might have killed far more people than medical experts have long assumed, not only in Great Britain, but in the United States as well....Mad cow has implications for insurance industry The first case of mad cow disease discovered in the United States will have far-reaching implications for the beef industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and grocery chains. But the Insurance Information Institute pointed out the bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak will also tangle the insurance industry in complex ramifications. The institute said animal mortality insurance would cover the market value of cattle destroyed in a government-ordered slaughter. Insurance is generally taken out on livestock of particularly high value, such as a prize stud bull, and one bull could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, if the mad cow infected meat is found to have gotten into the food supply, litigation would undoubtedly ensue. According to the institute, normally the plaintiff needs to demonstrate some physical or financial harm in a tort case....
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U.S. Cattle Prices Tumble on Mad Cow U.S. cattle prices tumbled in the Chicago markets on Monday after the U.S. Agriculture Department slashed its estimate for 2004 beef exports by 90 percent after the first U.S. case of deadly mad cow disease. "I think reality finally dawned on the CME cattle floor that the export markets will not reopen in weeks or even months,'' said Ann Barnhardt, livestock analyst with Colorado-based HedgersEdge.com. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live cattle futures for February delivery closed 1.225 cents lower at 74.700 cents per pound. That is down 18 percent since the U.S. Agriculture Department on Dec. 23 announced the first case of mad cow disease in the United States in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state....Abbott Laboratories Submits Application to U.S. Department of Agriculture For Mad Cow Disease Test Responding to the call for applications issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week, Abbott Laboratories today announced that a Veterinary Biological Product License Application for its bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) test was submitted and is pending review by the USDA. Abbott had previously submitted BSE test data, along with draft product labeling, to the USDA in October 2003. In addition, the USDA performed inspections of the test's manufacturing site in Ireland and Abbott's distribution center in the United States. To date, the Enfer BSE test has been approved for cattle testing by the European Union and Japan, where large scale BSE testing is mandatory. The test detects the presence of the abnormal proteins believed to cause BSE -- commonly known as mad cow disease....Poll: U.S. Still Eating Beef Despite Mad Cow Case Few Americans have changed their beef-eating habits despite discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, according to a poll released on Monday by the largest U.S. farm group. The survey of 1,000 consumers, conducted on Saturday and Sunday by the American Farm Bureau Federation, found 74 percent have not changed their beef consumption. Another 15 percent said they were eating less beef while 7 percent said they were eating more. "Consumers are largely standing behind America's beef producers," said Bob Stallman, president of the 5.5 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation. The farm group plans to conduct three more weekly polls to track consumer confidence in beef, a spokesman said....UN agency: Mad cow precautions in many countries still insufficient Measures taken by many countries to screen cattle for mad cow disease are not enough to prevent the spread of the infection and reassure consumers, a UN food agency said Monday. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States in December highlights the need for wider testing programs and the stricter application of preventive measures in countries where the disease is known to be present. But the UN agency said testing should be done on all cattle older than 30 months, an age beyond which the disease becomes detectable, as a measure to enhance consumer confidence....Japan boost imports of Australian beef Japan's buying more Australian beef, following its ban on U-S beef imports because of mad cow disease. A spokesman for Meat and Livestock Australia, Dr Peter Barnard, says a Japanese delegation last week accepted an offer from the Australian beef industry to increase shipments to Japan. He says demand is already rising. "Last week in the Japanese wholesale beef market prices for Australian product increased significantly and from talking to meat exporters from Australia there's increased interest and increased orders already flowing through for Australian product," says Dr Barnard .... Madcow kills big bull sale in New Mexico Concerns over mad cow disease forced the cancellation of a large sale of bulls this week near New Mexico's border with Mexico. The annual International All-Breeds Bull Sale, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, was to be a chance for Mexican ranchers to buy breeding bulls from New Mexico ranchers, the Albuquerque Journal reported Monday...Mad cow ranks third among consumer food concerns Even after weeks of intense and emotionally charged coverage by the news media, a poll released today by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) shows that mad cow disease ranks third among consumers' food-related health concerns. Food poisoning and food-borne bacteria remain the greatest concerns, followed by mad cow, irradiated meat and cloned foods....Canadian agriculture minister fails to persuade South Korea to lift beef ban Canada's agriculture minister petitioned South Korea on Monday to begin a dialogue on lifting a ban on Canadian beef amid mad cow fears but failed to win any quick concessions. Soth Korea said it will keep the ban in place but agreed to send experts to examine safety measures taken by Canada since a case of mad cow disease was uncovered last year....More Suspect Cows at Quincy-Area Farm Identified Seven cows believed to be part of the same Canadian herd as the first U.S. mad-cow case have been traced to another Washington state farm, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said over the weekend. The cows linked to the infected Holstein have been located on a dairy farm near Quincy, Grant County, about 60 miles north of Yakima. A state quarantine order was being prepared yesterday but has not been served on the farm, said Washington State Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Mary Beth Lang....Mad cow's untold story Below the drumbeat of reassurances from government and the cattle industry that mad cow disease poses no threat to public health, a small universe of scientists working on a family of related illnesses are finding disturbing evidence to the contrary. Several little-publicized studies, as well as ongoing research at a government laboratory in Montana, continue to spark questions about human susceptibility not only to mad cow, but to sister diseases such as chronic wasting disease that mainly affects deer and elk, and to scrapie, which infects sheep. Mice research and clusters of cases where humans contracted a disease similar to mad cow also has some scientists wondering if consuming infected meat might have killed far more people than medical experts have long assumed, not only in Great Britain, but in the United States as well....Mad cow has implications for insurance industry The first case of mad cow disease discovered in the United States will have far-reaching implications for the beef industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and grocery chains. But the Insurance Information Institute pointed out the bovine spongiform encephalopathy outbreak will also tangle the insurance industry in complex ramifications. The institute said animal mortality insurance would cover the market value of cattle destroyed in a government-ordered slaughter. Insurance is generally taken out on livestock of particularly high value, such as a prize stud bull, and one bull could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, if the mad cow infected meat is found to have gotten into the food supply, litigation would undoubtedly ensue. According to the institute, normally the plaintiff needs to demonstrate some physical or financial harm in a tort case....
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Sunday, January 11, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Breaking the logjam: Timber industry must build trust The decline of Montana’s timber industry is nothing new; rather, it has been decades coming. Hardest hit have been smaller operations that rely on timber from public lands. While timber from private lands has continued to flood mills, the log flow from federal forests has been reduced to a trickle. Consider, for instance, the following numbers, gathered for the Governor’s Conference on the Future of Montana’s Forests. In 1971, about 1.2 billion board feet were cut statewide. Federal lands provided 62 percent of that total. Fifteen years later, in 1986, the total hadn’t changed – still about 1.2 billion board feet – but the cut from federal lands had dropped to 41 percent. Fast forward another 15 years, to 2000, when Montana forests still produced some 755 billion board feet. But by 2000, the percentage coming from federal lands was just 14.4 percent. From the moment the Forest Service crafts a sale to the moment the consumer buys a board or a bed or a broomstick, the traditional “log flow” from federal lands is jammed....Forest Service mulls Powell discipline The U.S. Forest Service will consider disciplining departing Northern Region Forester Brad Powell over his alleged misuse of office computers now that he has decided not to retire, the agency said Friday. “Even though the allegations of misuse of government computers revealed nothing of a criminal nature ... the findings of the investigation will be reviewed to determine what administrative disciplinary actions will be taken,” the agency said in a statement. Possible discipline includes letters of reprimand; time off without pay; or dismissal, said Joseph Walsh, a Forest Service spokesman in Washington, D.C. Forest Service human resource officials will review findings from the investigation of Powell’s computer use, and a report will go to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. The investigation covered use of a government computer to view pornography, said Ed Nesselroad, Forest Service spokesman in Missoula....Biologists: Wolverines not endangered Estimates are there may be as many as 650 wolverines in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and possibly California. Montana is estimated to be home to between 350 and 450 wolverines. Wolverines are perhaps the wildest of American mammals. To shed light on the secretive animals, there are three wolverine research projects being conducted by the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula. Additionally, Bob and Kris Inman of the Wilderness Conservation Society are leading a research team (Greater Yellowstone Wolverine project) that has been collecting data on wolverines inhabiting the Madison and Teton ranges. What makes wolverines so difficult to study is they are constantly on the move, cover incredible distances, live at high and often inaccessible locations, and are few in number even in healthy populations...Column: They protect lions, don't they? Mountain lions became a "specially protected mammal," first by the "wildlife biologists" known as the state Legislature, which affixed a moratorium on hunting lions in 1972. And the cougars, though not even close to being an endangered or threatened species, were given bulletproof protection in 1990 by Proposition 117, or the California Wildlife Protection Act. That also set up a trust fund of $30 million a year for 30 years for future state purchases of "cougar habitat." Much of the ingredients for the bomb that went off in Orange County Thursday came courtesy of Proposition 117. The recipe: Mix some sprawling suburbs like Lake Forest and Portola Hills into an open space greenbelt that's been preserved for deer herds and mountain lions, make it user-friendly for hikers, joggers, mountain bikers and bird and wildlife watchers, ignore nearby lion attacks on livestock and pets and combine it with abnormal behavior of lions seen wandering in midday, as was the case a week ago at Irvine County Park, adjacent to the Whiting Ranch...MSU specialist predicts ‘wolves in every county’ Within a decade, ranchers from throughout Montana should expect to see wolves showing up in their back 40. As that occurs, the state’s government trappers – now known as wildlife services agents – upon whom ranchers rely to hunt and kill livestock-eating wolves, are going to be spread mighty thin. That’s according to Jim Knight, an extension wildlife specialist with Montana State University’s Animal and Range Sciences Department. And the onus on identifying a wolf kill and preserving the evidence is going to fall more and more on the livestock producer, Knight said. “I’m predicting that there will be wolves in every county in Montana in the next 10 years,” Knight said. “We’ve got a whole pile of wolves.”....Wolf danger new to southern Wyoming ranchers Lifelong rancher Charlie Jaure has seen cattle lose parts of their tails to the cold on occasion. He'd never seen them bitten off by wolves. That is, until shortly after Christmas, when Jaure lost two of his cattle to wolves north of Wamsutter. Another two were hurt badly and up to a dozen lost their tails, he said. ''I thought maybe they froze their tails,'' Jaure said. ''I got to looking, and it was all at the top of the tail.'' His wife, Kathleen, said the bones were left crushed and mangled. ''We're messing with a new predator,'' she said. ''We haven't seen the damage from wolves here in a hundred years.''....Column: Clinton, not Bush, played snowmobile politics Unfortunately, the Clinton-era plan was guided by a single political principle - appease radical environmentalists by eliminating snowmobiles. It was an outcome-driven plan that had no room for compromise or collaboration. It was the Clinton administration that was unconcerned with the plight of those who made their living by providing services to winter tourists, not the Bush administration. I have difficulty believing that anyone can, with a straight face, assert that communities like West Yellowstone, Mont., "got burned" because Bush "played politics with snowmobiles." To the contrary. What the Bush administration did was create a fair and balanced approach to winter use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. It was an approach that carefully and thoughtfully balanced winter access with environmental protections. The new policy would have strictly regulated and monitored snowmobiling by limiting the number of snowmobiles, by ensuring that snowmobiles are equipped with the best available technology to reduce both air and noise pollution, and by requiring guided snowmobile trips to ensure compliance with park rules and regulations....Navajos critical of water proposal Navajo citizens questioned the merits of a proposed Navajo water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin during a public comments meeting with tribal and state officials Monday evening in the Shiprock Chapter House. Navajos agreed with their San Juan County neighbors on two issues: closing the public comment period Jan. 15 was too soon and pushing the settlement to Congress in March was too fast....West may have some influence this time As 2004 begins and the presidential primary campaigns come to a boil, it looks as though voters here in the states of the Rocky Mountain West will have a voice in the presidential nominating process. This fastest-growing region of the nation requires attention and understanding from the candidates, including George W. Bush. Out our way, the issues are those of a changing and vibrant America: growth and its appropriate limits, the uses and care of our natural resources, economic transition, equity in an evolving tax base. Those and other dilemmas inherent in tomorrow's America are the issues of the West, particularly the Rocky Mountain West. Because George W. Bush is assured of his party's nomination, the primary contests are reserved to the Democrats. To win the party nomination requires 2,159 delegate votes. A full 27 percent of that total, or 592 votes, will soon be decided here in the West. Within 60 days, five primary election states of the Rocky Mountains and two neighboring states to our west will have cast the votes that may well determine who will be the Democrat's nominee for president....Free halters, blankets, reins are handed out Saddles worth as much as $1,500, and bits valued at $250. And all for free. There were halters, reins and blankets, too, given away yesterday to owners of the equine victims of the October wildfires. Lorri Bishop of Rescued Animals, who organized yesterday's Tack Day giveaway at the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds, said nearly $20,000 worth of equestrian equipment was donated. It wasn't only local horse lovers who answered the call. A large shipment arrived Friday night from the Austin Quarterhorse Association in Texas. Other types of donations helped, too, such as the trailer provided by Quicksilver Moving and Storage, to house the donated items for the past two months...Cowboy poetry tickets selling fast The 20th rendition of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is rapidly approaching and already a number of ticketed events have been sold out. Lovers of the Western lifestyle will reconvene in Elko to recite and listen to cowboy poetry as well as to take part in workshops and to hear renowned performers sing and play music Jan. 24-31...Modern posses trot out tradition Nothing conjures an image of the Old West more than a lawman rounding up a posse to ride out after bad hombres. Fast-forward about 200 years and the lawmen — and women — are still astride horses, although the work has changed to include crowd control, patrolling hard-to-reach areas, rescues and making friendlier contact with the community...
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Breaking the logjam: Timber industry must build trust The decline of Montana’s timber industry is nothing new; rather, it has been decades coming. Hardest hit have been smaller operations that rely on timber from public lands. While timber from private lands has continued to flood mills, the log flow from federal forests has been reduced to a trickle. Consider, for instance, the following numbers, gathered for the Governor’s Conference on the Future of Montana’s Forests. In 1971, about 1.2 billion board feet were cut statewide. Federal lands provided 62 percent of that total. Fifteen years later, in 1986, the total hadn’t changed – still about 1.2 billion board feet – but the cut from federal lands had dropped to 41 percent. Fast forward another 15 years, to 2000, when Montana forests still produced some 755 billion board feet. But by 2000, the percentage coming from federal lands was just 14.4 percent. From the moment the Forest Service crafts a sale to the moment the consumer buys a board or a bed or a broomstick, the traditional “log flow” from federal lands is jammed....Forest Service mulls Powell discipline The U.S. Forest Service will consider disciplining departing Northern Region Forester Brad Powell over his alleged misuse of office computers now that he has decided not to retire, the agency said Friday. “Even though the allegations of misuse of government computers revealed nothing of a criminal nature ... the findings of the investigation will be reviewed to determine what administrative disciplinary actions will be taken,” the agency said in a statement. Possible discipline includes letters of reprimand; time off without pay; or dismissal, said Joseph Walsh, a Forest Service spokesman in Washington, D.C. Forest Service human resource officials will review findings from the investigation of Powell’s computer use, and a report will go to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth. The investigation covered use of a government computer to view pornography, said Ed Nesselroad, Forest Service spokesman in Missoula....Biologists: Wolverines not endangered Estimates are there may be as many as 650 wolverines in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and possibly California. Montana is estimated to be home to between 350 and 450 wolverines. Wolverines are perhaps the wildest of American mammals. To shed light on the secretive animals, there are three wolverine research projects being conducted by the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula. Additionally, Bob and Kris Inman of the Wilderness Conservation Society are leading a research team (Greater Yellowstone Wolverine project) that has been collecting data on wolverines inhabiting the Madison and Teton ranges. What makes wolverines so difficult to study is they are constantly on the move, cover incredible distances, live at high and often inaccessible locations, and are few in number even in healthy populations...Column: They protect lions, don't they? Mountain lions became a "specially protected mammal," first by the "wildlife biologists" known as the state Legislature, which affixed a moratorium on hunting lions in 1972. And the cougars, though not even close to being an endangered or threatened species, were given bulletproof protection in 1990 by Proposition 117, or the California Wildlife Protection Act. That also set up a trust fund of $30 million a year for 30 years for future state purchases of "cougar habitat." Much of the ingredients for the bomb that went off in Orange County Thursday came courtesy of Proposition 117. The recipe: Mix some sprawling suburbs like Lake Forest and Portola Hills into an open space greenbelt that's been preserved for deer herds and mountain lions, make it user-friendly for hikers, joggers, mountain bikers and bird and wildlife watchers, ignore nearby lion attacks on livestock and pets and combine it with abnormal behavior of lions seen wandering in midday, as was the case a week ago at Irvine County Park, adjacent to the Whiting Ranch...MSU specialist predicts ‘wolves in every county’ Within a decade, ranchers from throughout Montana should expect to see wolves showing up in their back 40. As that occurs, the state’s government trappers – now known as wildlife services agents – upon whom ranchers rely to hunt and kill livestock-eating wolves, are going to be spread mighty thin. That’s according to Jim Knight, an extension wildlife specialist with Montana State University’s Animal and Range Sciences Department. And the onus on identifying a wolf kill and preserving the evidence is going to fall more and more on the livestock producer, Knight said. “I’m predicting that there will be wolves in every county in Montana in the next 10 years,” Knight said. “We’ve got a whole pile of wolves.”....Wolf danger new to southern Wyoming ranchers Lifelong rancher Charlie Jaure has seen cattle lose parts of their tails to the cold on occasion. He'd never seen them bitten off by wolves. That is, until shortly after Christmas, when Jaure lost two of his cattle to wolves north of Wamsutter. Another two were hurt badly and up to a dozen lost their tails, he said. ''I thought maybe they froze their tails,'' Jaure said. ''I got to looking, and it was all at the top of the tail.'' His wife, Kathleen, said the bones were left crushed and mangled. ''We're messing with a new predator,'' she said. ''We haven't seen the damage from wolves here in a hundred years.''....Column: Clinton, not Bush, played snowmobile politics Unfortunately, the Clinton-era plan was guided by a single political principle - appease radical environmentalists by eliminating snowmobiles. It was an outcome-driven plan that had no room for compromise or collaboration. It was the Clinton administration that was unconcerned with the plight of those who made their living by providing services to winter tourists, not the Bush administration. I have difficulty believing that anyone can, with a straight face, assert that communities like West Yellowstone, Mont., "got burned" because Bush "played politics with snowmobiles." To the contrary. What the Bush administration did was create a fair and balanced approach to winter use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. It was an approach that carefully and thoughtfully balanced winter access with environmental protections. The new policy would have strictly regulated and monitored snowmobiling by limiting the number of snowmobiles, by ensuring that snowmobiles are equipped with the best available technology to reduce both air and noise pollution, and by requiring guided snowmobile trips to ensure compliance with park rules and regulations....Navajos critical of water proposal Navajo citizens questioned the merits of a proposed Navajo water rights settlement on the San Juan Basin during a public comments meeting with tribal and state officials Monday evening in the Shiprock Chapter House. Navajos agreed with their San Juan County neighbors on two issues: closing the public comment period Jan. 15 was too soon and pushing the settlement to Congress in March was too fast....West may have some influence this time As 2004 begins and the presidential primary campaigns come to a boil, it looks as though voters here in the states of the Rocky Mountain West will have a voice in the presidential nominating process. This fastest-growing region of the nation requires attention and understanding from the candidates, including George W. Bush. Out our way, the issues are those of a changing and vibrant America: growth and its appropriate limits, the uses and care of our natural resources, economic transition, equity in an evolving tax base. Those and other dilemmas inherent in tomorrow's America are the issues of the West, particularly the Rocky Mountain West. Because George W. Bush is assured of his party's nomination, the primary contests are reserved to the Democrats. To win the party nomination requires 2,159 delegate votes. A full 27 percent of that total, or 592 votes, will soon be decided here in the West. Within 60 days, five primary election states of the Rocky Mountains and two neighboring states to our west will have cast the votes that may well determine who will be the Democrat's nominee for president....Free halters, blankets, reins are handed out Saddles worth as much as $1,500, and bits valued at $250. And all for free. There were halters, reins and blankets, too, given away yesterday to owners of the equine victims of the October wildfires. Lorri Bishop of Rescued Animals, who organized yesterday's Tack Day giveaway at the Lakeside Rodeo Grounds, said nearly $20,000 worth of equestrian equipment was donated. It wasn't only local horse lovers who answered the call. A large shipment arrived Friday night from the Austin Quarterhorse Association in Texas. Other types of donations helped, too, such as the trailer provided by Quicksilver Moving and Storage, to house the donated items for the past two months...Cowboy poetry tickets selling fast The 20th rendition of the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is rapidly approaching and already a number of ticketed events have been sold out. Lovers of the Western lifestyle will reconvene in Elko to recite and listen to cowboy poetry as well as to take part in workshops and to hear renowned performers sing and play music Jan. 24-31...Modern posses trot out tradition Nothing conjures an image of the Old West more than a lawman rounding up a posse to ride out after bad hombres. Fast-forward about 200 years and the lawmen — and women — are still astride horses, although the work has changed to include crowd control, patrolling hard-to-reach areas, rescues and making friendlier contact with the community...
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MAD COW NEWS
U.S. cattle boss urges speed: Jim McAdams said the U.S. should set an example and open its borders to Canada The U.S. will have a tough time getting other countries to open their borders to its beef if it doesn't do the same for Canada, warns the incoming president of the U.S. National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "We'll have a difficult time getting the world to open borders to us while we have it closed to y'all," Jim McAdams told more than 400 producers and feed industry representatives at a London convention. The Ontario Cattle Feeders Association's annual convention ends today. The Texas rancher said he favours reopening the U.S.-Canada border to the movement of beef at the earliest opportunity. "We want to expedite the investigation while at the same time making sure it's done right," he said...Organic beef growers determined to cash in on mad cow case Discovery of a Holstein with mad cow disease has producers and sellers of organic and natural beef changing their marketing tactics to make the case — sometimes starkly — that their meat is free of the disease. The largest natural-food grocery chain is taking the high road in a pitch on National Public Radio acknowledging its financial support of public radio. Whole Foods Market, based in Austin, Texas, describes itself as a "purveyor of natural beef from cattle raised without animal byproducts and monitored throughout the entire production process." Others prefer the direct approach: "Organic Beef — It's What's Safe for Dinner" was the headline on a New Year's Eve news release from the Organic Valley Meat Co. of La Farge, Wis...Canadians Irked by U.S. Blame for Mad Cow He and other Canadian ranchers view the land where they make their living as an uninterrupted range over which cattle, feed and processed beef move back and forth freely between Canada and the United States. The border is just a line on a map. They insist the North American cattle industry is so intertwined that it makes little sense to differentiate between American and Canadian beef. That's why they're angry about American finger pointing following the discoveries last year of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in an Alberta Black Angus cow and a Washington state Holstein traced to Alberta. What really steams them are efforts by some in the American cattle industry and politics to distance themselves from Canadian beef, including an ongoing U.S. ban on imports. They say that appears to blame Canada for the two cases of the brain-wasting disease. "We've never viewed BSE as a Canadian or U.S. problem, it's a North American problem," Jahnke said...Wash. Town Rallies Around Beef Industry As the government planned a weeklong round of cattle-killing in response to a mad-cow case in this town, hundreds of residents crammed into a school gymnasium to show their support for the beef industry. About 350 people attended a rally Saturday that featured booths offering literature about mad cow disease and T-shirts encouraging people to eat beef. Many more stopped by for free food; organizers gave away ribs, hot dog and more than 1,000 hamburgers...Livestock tracking is now on the fast track If there's a bright side to the U.S. mad cow scare, it's that it could speed the nation's move to a centralized system that electronically tracks animals as they move from fields to feed lots to food stores. Efforts to create a centralized database, which exist in some countries, have been slowed so far by disputes over who would maintain the database and who would bear its cost. Such a database could let agricultural officials determine within hours where a sick animal came from and where it went -- a crucial step in a disease outbreak or a terrorist assault on the food supply...Debate Rages On Labeling The mad cow scare has widened a division between some ranchers and meatpackers over a law set to take effect this fall that will require labels identifying U.S.-produced beef sold in grocery stores. Ranchers say it's more important than ever for their products to be labeled to bolster consumer confidence. Meatpackers, however, want a two-year delay in the law's implementation, contending it will require an expensive tracking system and may limit free trade without making meat any safer. Right now, consumers don't know the history of beef products in the grocery store freezer; beef produced in the United States can get a U.S. Department of Agriculture label regardless of where the animal that yielded it was born. The labeling law would require that beef, along with other perishable commodities like fruits and vegetables, fish, lamb and pork -- but not chicken -- be labeled with their country of origin. Only products both raised and processed in the United States would get an American label. The exact wording of the label would be left to the industry. The delay backed by meatpackers, until September 2006, could be accomplished by language in a federal spending bill approved by the House and awaiting a Senate vote later this month. The delay was written into the bill before the Washington state cow was found to have the disease...Riding herd on a crisis As a solitary infected cow in Washington state captured the world's attention and paralyzed the nation's $3.6 billion beef export market, it simultaneously pushed three Colorado-based livestock and meat trade groups into the international spotlight. Their message: U.S. beef is safe. Behind that message is a tale of daily tensions and adrenaline rushes; 16-hour workdays, some in a place called the T-bone conference room; dueling video images of sick and healthy cows; disrupted Christmas and New Year's holidays; huge chunks of cellular air time; and outbursts of frustration when the message hasn't gotten across. The three groups - the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the U.S. Meat Export Federation and research firm Cattle-Fax - are based in metro Denver and all are well-known in livestock circles...Editorial: Cattle cooperation While such measures are necessary, the quick implementation of country-of-origin labeling now called for by lawmakers seems less so. The measure is backed by several Democrats, including Sens. Tom Daschle, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan. There is little to object to in the principle of labeling meat with its country of origin. However, such regulations could be costly and would not cover all cases. Hamburger, for instance, is often produced from meat mixed from several countries. Even worse, country-of-origin labels might be misleading. They would tell consumers only where the animal was born, but nothing about the feed given the animal or the subsequent processing of its meat. Instead of promoting what might be little more than a promotional tool, policy-makers should be focused on cross-border solutions. After all, U.S. and Canadian cattle markets are already highly integrated. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Canadian cattle are already in American herds. Both Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Chief USDA Veterinary Officer Ron DeHaven have correctly called the mad cow situation a North American problem...USDA Plans to Beef Up Livestock ID System Some beef ranchers resent the high-tech chips and sensors as too expensive and, even, too precise; they're not sure they want consumers to know which farm produced which steak. Many others, however, share federal officials' hopes that a national identification program will allow them to control disease outbreaks, limit economic losses and help them run their ranches more efficiently. Cattle today are often shuttled anonymously through three or four owners before they reach the slaughterhouse. Little, if any, paperwork identifies each animal individually. Some beef ranchers resent the high-tech chips and sensors as too expensive and, even, too precise; they're not sure they want consumers to know which farm produced which steak. Many others, however, share federal officials' hopes that a national identification program will allow them to control disease outbreaks, limit economic losses and help them run their ranches more efficiently. The USDA plan, still sketchy, calls for tagging all 105 million U.S. cattle with the bovine equivalent of a Social Security number — an electronic code that will stay with the animal as it moves from ranch to feedlot, from state to state, from birth to slaughter. The European Union and Canada already use that type of system...63 FDA Warnings in Last Six Years In the last six years, the Food and Drug Administration has sent 63 warning letters to companies involved in the cattle industry detailing unsafe practices -- ranging from sloppy cleanup methods in feed mills to improper labeling of dangerous products that could be fed to cows -- that could lead to the spread of mad cow disease. While the FDA can't impose fines on companies that don't comply with rules that were set up in 1997 to help hold off the disease, the agency can seize products it believes are tainted, or shut down or prosecute noncompliant operations. Steve Solomon, deputy director of the FDA's office of regional operations, said the letters are reserved for serious deviations from the rules, noting, "We prioritize based on risk. We would not have sent the warning letter if we did not consider it significant." Since 1997, the agency has inspected 12,000 companies and found that most are in compliance with regulations that prohibit feeding certain protein products that can carry mad cow disease to animals such as cows and sheep that are hoofed, even-toed and have four-chambered stomachs...Conrad: New rules on slaughtering cattle should be relaxed Sen. Kent Conrad says the federal government should relax new rules on cattle slaughtering implemented in the wake of a mad cow incident and also investigate whether federal officials unduly delayed announcing the cow's origins. The Washington state animal that tested positive for mad cow disease was a downer cow, or non-ambulatory at the time of slaughter. A new ban on the slaughter and processing of downer cattle is too stringent, Conrad, D-N.D., said Friday at a Senate Budget Committee field hearing in Bismarck. Downer cattle should be tested for disease, and those found to be healthy should be allowed to be processed, he said. Some cattle may break legs in shipment but are otherwise safe, he said. Conrad, ranchers and health officials said they want to continue the ban of live cattle imports from Canada, where the diseased Holstein found in Washington state was born. They also want the United States to require country-of-origin labels on beef. Conrad said he will be calling for an inspector general's investigation to find out whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture delayed telling the public about the diseased cow's Canadian origins...
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U.S. cattle boss urges speed: Jim McAdams said the U.S. should set an example and open its borders to Canada The U.S. will have a tough time getting other countries to open their borders to its beef if it doesn't do the same for Canada, warns the incoming president of the U.S. National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "We'll have a difficult time getting the world to open borders to us while we have it closed to y'all," Jim McAdams told more than 400 producers and feed industry representatives at a London convention. The Ontario Cattle Feeders Association's annual convention ends today. The Texas rancher said he favours reopening the U.S.-Canada border to the movement of beef at the earliest opportunity. "We want to expedite the investigation while at the same time making sure it's done right," he said...Organic beef growers determined to cash in on mad cow case Discovery of a Holstein with mad cow disease has producers and sellers of organic and natural beef changing their marketing tactics to make the case — sometimes starkly — that their meat is free of the disease. The largest natural-food grocery chain is taking the high road in a pitch on National Public Radio acknowledging its financial support of public radio. Whole Foods Market, based in Austin, Texas, describes itself as a "purveyor of natural beef from cattle raised without animal byproducts and monitored throughout the entire production process." Others prefer the direct approach: "Organic Beef — It's What's Safe for Dinner" was the headline on a New Year's Eve news release from the Organic Valley Meat Co. of La Farge, Wis...Canadians Irked by U.S. Blame for Mad Cow He and other Canadian ranchers view the land where they make their living as an uninterrupted range over which cattle, feed and processed beef move back and forth freely between Canada and the United States. The border is just a line on a map. They insist the North American cattle industry is so intertwined that it makes little sense to differentiate between American and Canadian beef. That's why they're angry about American finger pointing following the discoveries last year of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in an Alberta Black Angus cow and a Washington state Holstein traced to Alberta. What really steams them are efforts by some in the American cattle industry and politics to distance themselves from Canadian beef, including an ongoing U.S. ban on imports. They say that appears to blame Canada for the two cases of the brain-wasting disease. "We've never viewed BSE as a Canadian or U.S. problem, it's a North American problem," Jahnke said...Wash. Town Rallies Around Beef Industry As the government planned a weeklong round of cattle-killing in response to a mad-cow case in this town, hundreds of residents crammed into a school gymnasium to show their support for the beef industry. About 350 people attended a rally Saturday that featured booths offering literature about mad cow disease and T-shirts encouraging people to eat beef. Many more stopped by for free food; organizers gave away ribs, hot dog and more than 1,000 hamburgers...Livestock tracking is now on the fast track If there's a bright side to the U.S. mad cow scare, it's that it could speed the nation's move to a centralized system that electronically tracks animals as they move from fields to feed lots to food stores. Efforts to create a centralized database, which exist in some countries, have been slowed so far by disputes over who would maintain the database and who would bear its cost. Such a database could let agricultural officials determine within hours where a sick animal came from and where it went -- a crucial step in a disease outbreak or a terrorist assault on the food supply...Debate Rages On Labeling The mad cow scare has widened a division between some ranchers and meatpackers over a law set to take effect this fall that will require labels identifying U.S.-produced beef sold in grocery stores. Ranchers say it's more important than ever for their products to be labeled to bolster consumer confidence. Meatpackers, however, want a two-year delay in the law's implementation, contending it will require an expensive tracking system and may limit free trade without making meat any safer. Right now, consumers don't know the history of beef products in the grocery store freezer; beef produced in the United States can get a U.S. Department of Agriculture label regardless of where the animal that yielded it was born. The labeling law would require that beef, along with other perishable commodities like fruits and vegetables, fish, lamb and pork -- but not chicken -- be labeled with their country of origin. Only products both raised and processed in the United States would get an American label. The exact wording of the label would be left to the industry. The delay backed by meatpackers, until September 2006, could be accomplished by language in a federal spending bill approved by the House and awaiting a Senate vote later this month. The delay was written into the bill before the Washington state cow was found to have the disease...Riding herd on a crisis As a solitary infected cow in Washington state captured the world's attention and paralyzed the nation's $3.6 billion beef export market, it simultaneously pushed three Colorado-based livestock and meat trade groups into the international spotlight. Their message: U.S. beef is safe. Behind that message is a tale of daily tensions and adrenaline rushes; 16-hour workdays, some in a place called the T-bone conference room; dueling video images of sick and healthy cows; disrupted Christmas and New Year's holidays; huge chunks of cellular air time; and outbursts of frustration when the message hasn't gotten across. The three groups - the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the U.S. Meat Export Federation and research firm Cattle-Fax - are based in metro Denver and all are well-known in livestock circles...Editorial: Cattle cooperation While such measures are necessary, the quick implementation of country-of-origin labeling now called for by lawmakers seems less so. The measure is backed by several Democrats, including Sens. Tom Daschle, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan. There is little to object to in the principle of labeling meat with its country of origin. However, such regulations could be costly and would not cover all cases. Hamburger, for instance, is often produced from meat mixed from several countries. Even worse, country-of-origin labels might be misleading. They would tell consumers only where the animal was born, but nothing about the feed given the animal or the subsequent processing of its meat. Instead of promoting what might be little more than a promotional tool, policy-makers should be focused on cross-border solutions. After all, U.S. and Canadian cattle markets are already highly integrated. Between 300,000 and 400,000 Canadian cattle are already in American herds. Both Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Chief USDA Veterinary Officer Ron DeHaven have correctly called the mad cow situation a North American problem...USDA Plans to Beef Up Livestock ID System Some beef ranchers resent the high-tech chips and sensors as too expensive and, even, too precise; they're not sure they want consumers to know which farm produced which steak. Many others, however, share federal officials' hopes that a national identification program will allow them to control disease outbreaks, limit economic losses and help them run their ranches more efficiently. Cattle today are often shuttled anonymously through three or four owners before they reach the slaughterhouse. Little, if any, paperwork identifies each animal individually. Some beef ranchers resent the high-tech chips and sensors as too expensive and, even, too precise; they're not sure they want consumers to know which farm produced which steak. Many others, however, share federal officials' hopes that a national identification program will allow them to control disease outbreaks, limit economic losses and help them run their ranches more efficiently. The USDA plan, still sketchy, calls for tagging all 105 million U.S. cattle with the bovine equivalent of a Social Security number — an electronic code that will stay with the animal as it moves from ranch to feedlot, from state to state, from birth to slaughter. The European Union and Canada already use that type of system...63 FDA Warnings in Last Six Years In the last six years, the Food and Drug Administration has sent 63 warning letters to companies involved in the cattle industry detailing unsafe practices -- ranging from sloppy cleanup methods in feed mills to improper labeling of dangerous products that could be fed to cows -- that could lead to the spread of mad cow disease. While the FDA can't impose fines on companies that don't comply with rules that were set up in 1997 to help hold off the disease, the agency can seize products it believes are tainted, or shut down or prosecute noncompliant operations. Steve Solomon, deputy director of the FDA's office of regional operations, said the letters are reserved for serious deviations from the rules, noting, "We prioritize based on risk. We would not have sent the warning letter if we did not consider it significant." Since 1997, the agency has inspected 12,000 companies and found that most are in compliance with regulations that prohibit feeding certain protein products that can carry mad cow disease to animals such as cows and sheep that are hoofed, even-toed and have four-chambered stomachs...Conrad: New rules on slaughtering cattle should be relaxed Sen. Kent Conrad says the federal government should relax new rules on cattle slaughtering implemented in the wake of a mad cow incident and also investigate whether federal officials unduly delayed announcing the cow's origins. The Washington state animal that tested positive for mad cow disease was a downer cow, or non-ambulatory at the time of slaughter. A new ban on the slaughter and processing of downer cattle is too stringent, Conrad, D-N.D., said Friday at a Senate Budget Committee field hearing in Bismarck. Downer cattle should be tested for disease, and those found to be healthy should be allowed to be processed, he said. Some cattle may break legs in shipment but are otherwise safe, he said. Conrad, ranchers and health officials said they want to continue the ban of live cattle imports from Canada, where the diseased Holstein found in Washington state was born. They also want the United States to require country-of-origin labels on beef. Conrad said he will be calling for an inspector general's investigation to find out whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture delayed telling the public about the diseased cow's Canadian origins...
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Seeking Harmony in a Final Return to the Land BABS McDONALD of Athens, Ga., says that when death takes her, there will be no reason for her family to spring for an expensive coffin and elaborate headstone. "What do I need it for at that point?" said Ms. McDonald, 50, an environmental educator for the Forest Service. "I don't even want a cardboard box. I want my body to give back to the earth. It is supposed to decompose and nourish the earth, become food for all the microorganisms." Ms. McDonald is among a small but growing number of people who want environmentally friendly or "green" burials. The goals, they say, are to conserve land and to cut down on what they see as unnecessary pollution from the hundreds of thousands of gallons of embalming fluid and thousands of tons of metal that are deposited into the ground each year. While the Environmental Protection Agency says that the formaldehyde and human wastes from a buried, embalmed body can potentially cause disease in humans or harm aquatic life, no studies have found conclusively that embalmed bodies are a risk to water supplies and soil. Still, some advocates of green burials say there is cause for concern...To the Cougar, Are People Now Fair Game?A cougar's attack Thursday on a pair of Orange County mountain bikers — killing one and seriously injuring another — comes as a controversial theory has emerged that mountain lions are learning to see people as prey. Wilderness areas that were once the preserves of hunters are being invaded increasingly by nature lovers riding bikes or carrying walking sticks — not guns. Suffering no harm from the nature lovers, some scientists say, has taught the mountain lion that humans are not to be feared, but hunted. "We're giving them a lot more opportunities to learn human beings are prey," said Lee Fitzhugh, a mountain lion researcher and UC Davis professor who has long predicted increased attacks on humans...Hopland tribal officer kills mountain lion On the very night state residents learned of a gruesome mountain lion incident that left one man dead and a woman seriously injured in Southern California's Orange County, a mountain lion was shot and killed by tribal police on the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians Reservation. The lion, a 75-pound "sub adult," was reported by residents there to be menacing an area of houses where a number of people, including many small children, live. "The cat would pace back and forth and then crouch and stare intently at the people," Boesel continued. "He did that repeatedly, so the officer went to the truck to get his rifle, and when he came back the cat was still there and would not go away."...Montana to join fight against sled ban Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath has told Gov. Judy Martz his office will get involved in helping the state challenge a snowmobile ban in Yellowstone National Park. But McGrath said his agency does not have the staff to handle one of the cases -- an appeal of a federal judge's decision last month requiring a gradual phase-out of the sleds in the park. He said he will help the governor's office prepare its arguments in that case. And he told Martz that his office will have to arrange hiring of a Wyoming attorney to speak for Montana in a separate but similar federal case filed in that state...The Empire Ranch and the Vail family There is work going on at the Empire Ranch, work to save the historic ranch house that once served as headquarters of a cattle empire that spread from Tucson to Temecula. A nonprofit group working with the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land, has been raising money to preserve the ranch house, bunk houses and barns as they were 125 years ago...Environmental-law reform plans greeted with distrust at forum A climate of distrust surrounds the nation's overarching environmental law, participants said Thursday in a federal forum here addressing a controversial proposal by the Bush administration to "streamline" the regulations. In the fourth and last of a series of regional forums around the country, a group of some of the nation's leading experts in environmental policy gathered here to grapple with a federal task force's recommended changes to the hallmark 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Supporters of the effort by the White House Council on Environmental Quality to streamline the regulations say the "common- sense" reforms will speed up environmental reviews under a law that has been used to stymie necessary projects such as airport expansions, highway construction and logging for wildfire prevention...White House seeks control on health, safety Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis. The White House Office Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment. The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations - known as peer reviews - of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements. Currently, each federal agency controls its emergency notifications and peer review of its projects...Crucial court showdown set on national nuclear dump The federal government says entombing the nation's nuclear waste beneath an ancient volcanic ridge in the Nevada desert will be safe. Nevada says it's a disaster in the making, and the state shouldn't have to bear the burden of being the nation's nuclear waste dump. So far, the Energy Department has won presidential and congressional approval for the Yucca Mountain project, which it wants to open in 2010 at cost of at least $58 billion _ about the same as the International Space Station. On Wednesday, lawyers will squeeze more than two decades of debate and six lawsuits into three hours of oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C...Fears of Deadly Winter Grow for Yellowstone's Bison Herd With Yellowstone National Park's bison population at its highest in years, some environmentalists fear that many of the animals will wander into Montana this winter and be killed in the name of controlling disease. Fueling their concerns is a recent spell of harsh weather — hard winters often result in more bison leaving the park in search of food — and fears that officials will take a hard line against bison after a Wyoming cattle herd was found infected with brucellosis, a disease also present in the Yellowstone bison herd...Discovery of Pesticide-Resistant Mosquitoes Raises Disease Fears Infectious disease experts are expressing concern over the discovery of pesticide-resistant mosquitoes in Marin County. The Culex mosquitos are the species capable of spreading West Nile virus, which has recently gained a foothold in California. The so-called "super mosquitoes" were found by U.C. Davis researchers under a Marin County apartment. The insects had developed a tolerance to pyrethroids, a common agricultural pesticide. It's considered likely that the pesticide-resistant strain of the insects will gradually spread throughout the state. Mosquitos with a resistance to the chemical have been found in Africa and Asia, but experts say this is the first instance in North America...California was easy pickin' to a fortune Few Americans are likely to have heard of the Boswell clan or their current patriarch, J.S. Boswell, an eccentric and secretive 80-year-old who can be thought of as the Sam Walton of U.S. food and fiber. The Boswells had been cotton growers in Georgia when a boll weevil outbreak in the 1920s drove them West. There they lit in a dust-blown, mosquito-mizzled valley north of Los Angeles and proceeded to jack it up and create the biggest agricultural money-machine on Earth. The remarkable story of the Boswell family and their Central Valley is the subject of "The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire" by Los Angeles Times writers Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman...In the fellowship of the ring It started with a dozen cowboys and a thousand dollars apiece in Scottsdale, Ariz. For Auburn resident Aaron Semas, it ended with him being honored by the organization he helped found. In 1992, Semas and several other riders formed the PBR while at a rodeo. Since its first championship in 1994 the sport has blossomed into one the fastest growing in the country, with television contracts, large arenas for events, and riders making upwards of $2 million in purses. "I was one of the original founders of the PBR. I still sit on the board of directors," Semas said. "Just to see where the PBR started and where it’s at now and has a chance to go, it’s pretty exciting. And to be honored in the highest degree of being honored that PBR has, it’s a pretty exciting honor for sure."...Special needs kids rope and ride at rodeo More than 20 children spent Saturday riding, roping and enjoying a rodeo of their own at the SandHills fourth annual Special Needs Kids Rodeo at the Ector County Coliseum. “We felt there was a need, and this was a way we could help children who didn’t usually get to be up close with the animals,” said Jay Doss, chair of the Special Kids Rodeo, adding the special rodeo is a branch of Christian Youth Night. “We do this as a part of that ministry.” The children got to take their turns riding a horse — with adults along side for safety. They also got a chance to sling a rope at a wooden calf under the direction of real cowboys. “It’s hard, but it’s fun,” DaQuann Allen, a 15-year-old Midland Lee student, said about the roping. But roping wasn’t what kept DaQuann interested. “I like riding the horses,” he said. So did a lot of other children. The line to ride one of the seven horses available stayed pretty long...
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Seeking Harmony in a Final Return to the Land BABS McDONALD of Athens, Ga., says that when death takes her, there will be no reason for her family to spring for an expensive coffin and elaborate headstone. "What do I need it for at that point?" said Ms. McDonald, 50, an environmental educator for the Forest Service. "I don't even want a cardboard box. I want my body to give back to the earth. It is supposed to decompose and nourish the earth, become food for all the microorganisms." Ms. McDonald is among a small but growing number of people who want environmentally friendly or "green" burials. The goals, they say, are to conserve land and to cut down on what they see as unnecessary pollution from the hundreds of thousands of gallons of embalming fluid and thousands of tons of metal that are deposited into the ground each year. While the Environmental Protection Agency says that the formaldehyde and human wastes from a buried, embalmed body can potentially cause disease in humans or harm aquatic life, no studies have found conclusively that embalmed bodies are a risk to water supplies and soil. Still, some advocates of green burials say there is cause for concern...To the Cougar, Are People Now Fair Game?A cougar's attack Thursday on a pair of Orange County mountain bikers — killing one and seriously injuring another — comes as a controversial theory has emerged that mountain lions are learning to see people as prey. Wilderness areas that were once the preserves of hunters are being invaded increasingly by nature lovers riding bikes or carrying walking sticks — not guns. Suffering no harm from the nature lovers, some scientists say, has taught the mountain lion that humans are not to be feared, but hunted. "We're giving them a lot more opportunities to learn human beings are prey," said Lee Fitzhugh, a mountain lion researcher and UC Davis professor who has long predicted increased attacks on humans...Hopland tribal officer kills mountain lion On the very night state residents learned of a gruesome mountain lion incident that left one man dead and a woman seriously injured in Southern California's Orange County, a mountain lion was shot and killed by tribal police on the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians Reservation. The lion, a 75-pound "sub adult," was reported by residents there to be menacing an area of houses where a number of people, including many small children, live. "The cat would pace back and forth and then crouch and stare intently at the people," Boesel continued. "He did that repeatedly, so the officer went to the truck to get his rifle, and when he came back the cat was still there and would not go away."...Montana to join fight against sled ban Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath has told Gov. Judy Martz his office will get involved in helping the state challenge a snowmobile ban in Yellowstone National Park. But McGrath said his agency does not have the staff to handle one of the cases -- an appeal of a federal judge's decision last month requiring a gradual phase-out of the sleds in the park. He said he will help the governor's office prepare its arguments in that case. And he told Martz that his office will have to arrange hiring of a Wyoming attorney to speak for Montana in a separate but similar federal case filed in that state...The Empire Ranch and the Vail family There is work going on at the Empire Ranch, work to save the historic ranch house that once served as headquarters of a cattle empire that spread from Tucson to Temecula. A nonprofit group working with the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land, has been raising money to preserve the ranch house, bunk houses and barns as they were 125 years ago...Environmental-law reform plans greeted with distrust at forum A climate of distrust surrounds the nation's overarching environmental law, participants said Thursday in a federal forum here addressing a controversial proposal by the Bush administration to "streamline" the regulations. In the fourth and last of a series of regional forums around the country, a group of some of the nation's leading experts in environmental policy gathered here to grapple with a federal task force's recommended changes to the hallmark 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. Supporters of the effort by the White House Council on Environmental Quality to streamline the regulations say the "common- sense" reforms will speed up environmental reviews under a law that has been used to stymie necessary projects such as airport expansions, highway construction and logging for wildfire prevention...White House seeks control on health, safety Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis. The White House Office Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment. The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations - known as peer reviews - of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements. Currently, each federal agency controls its emergency notifications and peer review of its projects...Crucial court showdown set on national nuclear dump The federal government says entombing the nation's nuclear waste beneath an ancient volcanic ridge in the Nevada desert will be safe. Nevada says it's a disaster in the making, and the state shouldn't have to bear the burden of being the nation's nuclear waste dump. So far, the Energy Department has won presidential and congressional approval for the Yucca Mountain project, which it wants to open in 2010 at cost of at least $58 billion _ about the same as the International Space Station. On Wednesday, lawyers will squeeze more than two decades of debate and six lawsuits into three hours of oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C...Fears of Deadly Winter Grow for Yellowstone's Bison Herd With Yellowstone National Park's bison population at its highest in years, some environmentalists fear that many of the animals will wander into Montana this winter and be killed in the name of controlling disease. Fueling their concerns is a recent spell of harsh weather — hard winters often result in more bison leaving the park in search of food — and fears that officials will take a hard line against bison after a Wyoming cattle herd was found infected with brucellosis, a disease also present in the Yellowstone bison herd...Discovery of Pesticide-Resistant Mosquitoes Raises Disease Fears Infectious disease experts are expressing concern over the discovery of pesticide-resistant mosquitoes in Marin County. The Culex mosquitos are the species capable of spreading West Nile virus, which has recently gained a foothold in California. The so-called "super mosquitoes" were found by U.C. Davis researchers under a Marin County apartment. The insects had developed a tolerance to pyrethroids, a common agricultural pesticide. It's considered likely that the pesticide-resistant strain of the insects will gradually spread throughout the state. Mosquitos with a resistance to the chemical have been found in Africa and Asia, but experts say this is the first instance in North America...California was easy pickin' to a fortune Few Americans are likely to have heard of the Boswell clan or their current patriarch, J.S. Boswell, an eccentric and secretive 80-year-old who can be thought of as the Sam Walton of U.S. food and fiber. The Boswells had been cotton growers in Georgia when a boll weevil outbreak in the 1920s drove them West. There they lit in a dust-blown, mosquito-mizzled valley north of Los Angeles and proceeded to jack it up and create the biggest agricultural money-machine on Earth. The remarkable story of the Boswell family and their Central Valley is the subject of "The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire" by Los Angeles Times writers Mark Arax and Rick Wartzman...In the fellowship of the ring It started with a dozen cowboys and a thousand dollars apiece in Scottsdale, Ariz. For Auburn resident Aaron Semas, it ended with him being honored by the organization he helped found. In 1992, Semas and several other riders formed the PBR while at a rodeo. Since its first championship in 1994 the sport has blossomed into one the fastest growing in the country, with television contracts, large arenas for events, and riders making upwards of $2 million in purses. "I was one of the original founders of the PBR. I still sit on the board of directors," Semas said. "Just to see where the PBR started and where it’s at now and has a chance to go, it’s pretty exciting. And to be honored in the highest degree of being honored that PBR has, it’s a pretty exciting honor for sure."...Special needs kids rope and ride at rodeo More than 20 children spent Saturday riding, roping and enjoying a rodeo of their own at the SandHills fourth annual Special Needs Kids Rodeo at the Ector County Coliseum. “We felt there was a need, and this was a way we could help children who didn’t usually get to be up close with the animals,” said Jay Doss, chair of the Special Kids Rodeo, adding the special rodeo is a branch of Christian Youth Night. “We do this as a part of that ministry.” The children got to take their turns riding a horse — with adults along side for safety. They also got a chance to sling a rope at a wooden calf under the direction of real cowboys. “It’s hard, but it’s fun,” DaQuann Allen, a 15-year-old Midland Lee student, said about the roping. But roping wasn’t what kept DaQuann interested. “I like riding the horses,” he said. So did a lot of other children. The line to ride one of the seven horses available stayed pretty long...
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