Saturday, September 04, 2004
OPINION/COMMENTARY
NRDC: Biting the Taxpayers Who Feed Them Incredibly, taxpayer money is subsidizing these Efforts. Federal grants to green groups that engage in anti-Bush activism have increased substantially over the past four years, and NRDC has received a generous helping of federal funds. During the first three years of the Bush Administration, NRDC received more than $1.6 million from the Environmental Protection Agency alone— the most recent grant in September of 2003. Meanwhile, the group goes after the Administration, suing in court to hamper, halt or reverse Bush environmental policies. These lawsuits— many ruled frivolous by the courts— have imposed further costs on taxpayers. Ironically, they also have drained the resources and diverted the attention of the very agencies that are supposed to focus on environmental pro-tection. And on those relatively rare occasions when NRDC does win in court, the results are often harmful— to taxpayers, to our national security, and to the environment itself....
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NRDC: Biting the Taxpayers Who Feed Them Incredibly, taxpayer money is subsidizing these Efforts. Federal grants to green groups that engage in anti-Bush activism have increased substantially over the past four years, and NRDC has received a generous helping of federal funds. During the first three years of the Bush Administration, NRDC received more than $1.6 million from the Environmental Protection Agency alone— the most recent grant in September of 2003. Meanwhile, the group goes after the Administration, suing in court to hamper, halt or reverse Bush environmental policies. These lawsuits— many ruled frivolous by the courts— have imposed further costs on taxpayers. Ironically, they also have drained the resources and diverted the attention of the very agencies that are supposed to focus on environmental pro-tection. And on those relatively rare occasions when NRDC does win in court, the results are often harmful— to taxpayers, to our national security, and to the environment itself....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
SLOPPY SCIENCE FOR FEDERAL DOLLARS
Many “scientific” papers predicting dire consequences from global warming are flawed, says Patrick J. Michaels of the Cato Institute. Furthermore, doom-and-gloom research on global warming is motivated by the promise of federal research dollars.
According to Michaels, the latest paper which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicts that global warming will create numerous deaths in California and destroy the state’s wine industry.
However, the paper is flawed for several reasons:
It uses 15-year-old research on heat-related deaths and a computer model that is incapable of predicting U.S. temperatures (much less California temperatures).
One of the models -- from the British Meteorological Office -- was used in a similar version by the Clinton administration, but it was shown to perform worse than a table of random numbers in predicting temperature changes by decade.
The paper down-scaled the original model (which covered a resolution of 36,000 square miles) to 56 square miles to predict California’s temperature, in spite of the fact that it could not accurately predict surface temperatures.
Moreover, a model that cannot accurate predict surface temperatures, says Michaels, cannot accurately predict precipitation either, even though the paper estimated that decreased rainfall would ruin California vineyards.
Furthermore, the 15-year-old research on heat-related deaths did not take into account the ways since then in which people have adapted to heat, through air conditioning, improved emergency care and new precautions. It instead assumes what scientists refer to as the “dumb people scenario” -- that inhabitants will “fry and die” instead of adapting to changing climate.
However, without sloppy science predicting the dire consequences of global warming, scientists might miss out on the $4 billion allotted annually to climate change research.
Source: Patrick J. Michaels, “Global Warming has Doomsayers Riding Federal Gravy Train,” Investor’s Business Daily, August 24, 2004, Kathryn Hayhoe, et al, “Emissions Pathways, Climate Change and Impacts on California,” PNAS 2004 101.
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SLOPPY SCIENCE FOR FEDERAL DOLLARS
Many “scientific” papers predicting dire consequences from global warming are flawed, says Patrick J. Michaels of the Cato Institute. Furthermore, doom-and-gloom research on global warming is motivated by the promise of federal research dollars.
According to Michaels, the latest paper which appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicts that global warming will create numerous deaths in California and destroy the state’s wine industry.
However, the paper is flawed for several reasons:
It uses 15-year-old research on heat-related deaths and a computer model that is incapable of predicting U.S. temperatures (much less California temperatures).
One of the models -- from the British Meteorological Office -- was used in a similar version by the Clinton administration, but it was shown to perform worse than a table of random numbers in predicting temperature changes by decade.
The paper down-scaled the original model (which covered a resolution of 36,000 square miles) to 56 square miles to predict California’s temperature, in spite of the fact that it could not accurately predict surface temperatures.
Moreover, a model that cannot accurate predict surface temperatures, says Michaels, cannot accurately predict precipitation either, even though the paper estimated that decreased rainfall would ruin California vineyards.
Furthermore, the 15-year-old research on heat-related deaths did not take into account the ways since then in which people have adapted to heat, through air conditioning, improved emergency care and new precautions. It instead assumes what scientists refer to as the “dumb people scenario” -- that inhabitants will “fry and die” instead of adapting to changing climate.
However, without sloppy science predicting the dire consequences of global warming, scientists might miss out on the $4 billion allotted annually to climate change research.
Source: Patrick J. Michaels, “Global Warming has Doomsayers Riding Federal Gravy Train,” Investor’s Business Daily, August 24, 2004, Kathryn Hayhoe, et al, “Emissions Pathways, Climate Change and Impacts on California,” PNAS 2004 101.
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Oil Prices and the Federal Reserve The recent spike in international oil prices towards $50 a barrel has conjured up distant memories of earlier oil price shocks. In some quarters it has also raised calls for the Federal Reserve to speed up its planned return to more normal interest rates for fear of allowing inflation again to rear its ugly head. Before heeding such advice, the Federal Reserve would do well to examine how the present run up in international oil prices differs from previous such episodes. For such an examination might reveal that raising interest rates now would be a costly mistake....
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Oil Prices and the Federal Reserve The recent spike in international oil prices towards $50 a barrel has conjured up distant memories of earlier oil price shocks. In some quarters it has also raised calls for the Federal Reserve to speed up its planned return to more normal interest rates for fear of allowing inflation again to rear its ugly head. Before heeding such advice, the Federal Reserve would do well to examine how the present run up in international oil prices differs from previous such episodes. For such an examination might reveal that raising interest rates now would be a costly mistake....
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Bear attacks man trying to distract it in Angeles National Forest The injured 39-year-old man, who was not identified, heard the animal rummaging through the family's ice chest at about 2 a.m. while camping with his wife and daughters at the Chilao campground, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The couple agreed that the man would distract the bear while the wife and two daughters ran for their vehicle. The bear retaliated after the man threw something at him, forest spokeswoman Kathy Peterson said....
Hungry bears forcing safety precautions To battle a growing number of bears rummaging through trash and scouring porches for scraps, tribal wildlife managers have placed 25 new bear-proof garbage containers across the Blackfeet Reservation. A weak berry crop has bears searching for food and causing problems across Montana, but the reservation has been hit particularly hard. Wildlife managers have had to kill at least 15 black bears on the reservation this summer, including at least eight in the St. Mary area....
Two Lynx Moving Through Utah Two radio-collared Canada lynx released in Colorado have been moving through Utah, with one most recently reported in the north and the other in the southwest. One moved through the Book Cliffs, the Strawberry Valley and north along the Wasatch Mountains. On Aug. 22, he was near the mouth of Weber Canyon. The other lynx was last reported around Panguitch....
Homes Burn, Horses Killed In Wildfires Fire fighters were battling wildfires late into the night Friday as gusty winds fanned several blazes across Northern California. In Vacaville, 32 miles southwest of Sacramento, a 30-acre grassfire destroyed a farmhouse and several barns, killing eight horses. And a fire in nearby Davis jumped a highway, burned two homes and injured three people....
Idaho farmers may be asked to dry up 100,000 acres Lawmakers are looking at a federal program that could pay farmers to dry up 100,000 acres of farmland as a way of stabilizing groundwater levels in south central Idaho. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering spending $18 million to expand a successful land conservation program now limited to 800,000 acres of dry farm land to include lands irrigated with water pumped from the Snake River Plain Aquifer....
Mysteries of San Andreas Fault Are Explored by a Drill There is nothing more nerve-racking for many Californians than the unpredictable and irritable San Andreas fault, which leveled much of San Francisco the last time it kicked up a big earthquake in 1906. That might explain one of the more anxious questions commonly posed to several dozen scientists who gathered on a cattle ranch here on Thursday to marvel at a huge drill mounted on an 18-story rig, poking at the fault. Might the drilling not trigger an earthquake? Dubbed by the National Science Foundation as a modern-day journey to the center of the earth, the drilling here is part of a $250 million project called EarthScope that is studying the tectonics of North America. Though the scientists say the project is not intended to devise a way to predict earthquakes, that has been one of the biggest unspoken expectations since a test hole was drilled here two years ago....
Dowser 'can't tell you why' he senses water Joliet rancher Carl Hansen, 82, paces across his barnyard with an L-shaped steel rod in one hand. As he crosses his water line, the rod swings firmly to the left. "I can show you how this works, but I can't tell you why," he said, grinning as he demonstrated the ancient practice of dowsing. Theories about how dowsing works run the gamut from auras to electromagnetic fields. Some doubt that it works at all, while others say it's a normal sensory perception - the same sense that tells birds where to migrate - a sense that allowed early humans to survive....
Riding the Western Trail Scores of wagons and riders are gathering here to embark Monday on a 680-mile trek along a route that millions of steers followed north during frontier-era cattle drives. The 48-day ride, slated to culminate Oct. 23 in Dodge City, Kan., is part of a multi-state publicity campaign for "The Western Trail," the most heavily traveled cattle thoroughfare of the 1800s. The excursion will cover about 16 miles daily — far less demanding than when the route first was blazed in 1874....
A frontier murder mystery, Texas-style About a quarter till nine on the night of May 11, 1752, three men ate their dinner at a rough, wooden table in a small room in a mission out in the wilderness of Spanish Texas. Two were Catholic priests – Miguel de Pinilla and Juan José de Ganzabal. The third was Juan José Ceballos, a hangdog soldier whose pretty wife's illicit affair with his captain had become a scandal. Even the mission Indians knew. Most were Cocos, a band of the sometimes cannibalistic Karankawas....
Bushyhead 101 not your typical ropin’ and racin’ The Bushyhead Pasture Roping and Barrel Racing, which begins Sunday and runs through Monday, could never be an indoor event, even if organizer Clem McSpadden wanted it to be. The roping event, for instance, gives the calf a 101-foot head start, instead of just a few seconds. The ropers have all of a 260-acre pasture to secure the steer, or try to. Barrel racers, meanwhile, must navigate a half-mile, three point course. Winning times approaching 50 seconds are not uncommon. The events are intended to provide a throwback to when roping and excellent horsemanship were necessary to live and work west of the Mississippi River....
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Bear attacks man trying to distract it in Angeles National Forest The injured 39-year-old man, who was not identified, heard the animal rummaging through the family's ice chest at about 2 a.m. while camping with his wife and daughters at the Chilao campground, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The couple agreed that the man would distract the bear while the wife and two daughters ran for their vehicle. The bear retaliated after the man threw something at him, forest spokeswoman Kathy Peterson said....
Hungry bears forcing safety precautions To battle a growing number of bears rummaging through trash and scouring porches for scraps, tribal wildlife managers have placed 25 new bear-proof garbage containers across the Blackfeet Reservation. A weak berry crop has bears searching for food and causing problems across Montana, but the reservation has been hit particularly hard. Wildlife managers have had to kill at least 15 black bears on the reservation this summer, including at least eight in the St. Mary area....
Two Lynx Moving Through Utah Two radio-collared Canada lynx released in Colorado have been moving through Utah, with one most recently reported in the north and the other in the southwest. One moved through the Book Cliffs, the Strawberry Valley and north along the Wasatch Mountains. On Aug. 22, he was near the mouth of Weber Canyon. The other lynx was last reported around Panguitch....
Homes Burn, Horses Killed In Wildfires Fire fighters were battling wildfires late into the night Friday as gusty winds fanned several blazes across Northern California. In Vacaville, 32 miles southwest of Sacramento, a 30-acre grassfire destroyed a farmhouse and several barns, killing eight horses. And a fire in nearby Davis jumped a highway, burned two homes and injured three people....
Idaho farmers may be asked to dry up 100,000 acres Lawmakers are looking at a federal program that could pay farmers to dry up 100,000 acres of farmland as a way of stabilizing groundwater levels in south central Idaho. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering spending $18 million to expand a successful land conservation program now limited to 800,000 acres of dry farm land to include lands irrigated with water pumped from the Snake River Plain Aquifer....
Mysteries of San Andreas Fault Are Explored by a Drill There is nothing more nerve-racking for many Californians than the unpredictable and irritable San Andreas fault, which leveled much of San Francisco the last time it kicked up a big earthquake in 1906. That might explain one of the more anxious questions commonly posed to several dozen scientists who gathered on a cattle ranch here on Thursday to marvel at a huge drill mounted on an 18-story rig, poking at the fault. Might the drilling not trigger an earthquake? Dubbed by the National Science Foundation as a modern-day journey to the center of the earth, the drilling here is part of a $250 million project called EarthScope that is studying the tectonics of North America. Though the scientists say the project is not intended to devise a way to predict earthquakes, that has been one of the biggest unspoken expectations since a test hole was drilled here two years ago....
Dowser 'can't tell you why' he senses water Joliet rancher Carl Hansen, 82, paces across his barnyard with an L-shaped steel rod in one hand. As he crosses his water line, the rod swings firmly to the left. "I can show you how this works, but I can't tell you why," he said, grinning as he demonstrated the ancient practice of dowsing. Theories about how dowsing works run the gamut from auras to electromagnetic fields. Some doubt that it works at all, while others say it's a normal sensory perception - the same sense that tells birds where to migrate - a sense that allowed early humans to survive....
Riding the Western Trail Scores of wagons and riders are gathering here to embark Monday on a 680-mile trek along a route that millions of steers followed north during frontier-era cattle drives. The 48-day ride, slated to culminate Oct. 23 in Dodge City, Kan., is part of a multi-state publicity campaign for "The Western Trail," the most heavily traveled cattle thoroughfare of the 1800s. The excursion will cover about 16 miles daily — far less demanding than when the route first was blazed in 1874....
A frontier murder mystery, Texas-style About a quarter till nine on the night of May 11, 1752, three men ate their dinner at a rough, wooden table in a small room in a mission out in the wilderness of Spanish Texas. Two were Catholic priests – Miguel de Pinilla and Juan José de Ganzabal. The third was Juan José Ceballos, a hangdog soldier whose pretty wife's illicit affair with his captain had become a scandal. Even the mission Indians knew. Most were Cocos, a band of the sometimes cannibalistic Karankawas....
Bushyhead 101 not your typical ropin’ and racin’ The Bushyhead Pasture Roping and Barrel Racing, which begins Sunday and runs through Monday, could never be an indoor event, even if organizer Clem McSpadden wanted it to be. The roping event, for instance, gives the calf a 101-foot head start, instead of just a few seconds. The ropers have all of a 260-acre pasture to secure the steer, or try to. Barrel racers, meanwhile, must navigate a half-mile, three point course. Winning times approaching 50 seconds are not uncommon. The events are intended to provide a throwback to when roping and excellent horsemanship were necessary to live and work west of the Mississippi River....
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Friday, September 03, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Forest fire lookout hit by hunting arrow A volunteer forest fire lookout is in stable condition at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena after being shot in the left shoulder by a hunting arrow Thursday afternoon, authorities said. The unidentified man said the arrow fell from the sky and that he did not see anyone in the area, said Kathy Peterson, spokeswoman for the Angeles National Forest. Bow hunting season does not open until Saturday, Peterson said, which makes it a more serious violation if the incident was accidental. The Sheriff's department and the U.S. Forest Service law enforcement agency are conducting an investigation into the incident....
Conservationists Sue Federal Government to Conserve Endangered Fish Habitat Four conservation groups filed a lawsuit today in Federal District Court in Atlanta, Georgia aimed at protecting the habitat of two species of endangered fish. The Goldline Darter and the Blue Shiner are species of southeastern freshwater fish whose habitat has been markedly diminished in Georgia, Alabama (and for the Blue Shiner, also in Tennessee). Both species face extinction due to habitat destruction and fragmentation from sewage pollution, the construction of dams, sedimentation, and increased sprawl development....
5 Federal Agencies To Give National Public Lands Day Volunteers 'Fee-Free' Day Volunteers pitching in on National Public Lands Day will be rewarded with a free entry day during the next year at any public land site managed by five federal agencies. For the first time, NPLD volunteers who work at a site managed by the agencies will receive a coupon good for a "fee-free" day at any of the agency sites. Those agencies, which have entry fees, are the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and USDA Forest Service....
Arizona anglers concerned about decline in fishing The Mesa bait and tackle shop is suffering from a years-long downturn in sport fishing brought about by drought, wildfires, a soft economy, fish kills and maybe even a general lack of interest in heading out with a rod and reel. A federal study shows the number of fishing license holders in Arizona decreased by 60,000 from 445,000 in 1996 to 385,000 in 2002. Another government study says the number of anglers in the Grand Canyon State dropped from 443,000 in 1996 to 394,000 in 2001. When expenditures over the past decade are factored, the snag is even worse....
Montana, Wyoming ask judge to strike snowmobile ban Attorneys for snowmobile manufacturers, winter resorts and the states of Montana and Wyoming on Thursday implored a judge to strike down, once and for all, a Clinton-era rule banning snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Doing so would provide certainty for businesses that rely on winter use of the parks and prevent a federal judge in Washington, D.C., from resurrecting the ban a second time, the lawyers argued....
Extraordinary rainfall puts snakes on the move With extraordinary rainfall throughout the Big Bend Country in 2004, indications are that our legless friends are having a banner year. Snakes are on the move, and those encountered are apparently having plenty of success in finding prey. From mid-May to October, the communities of the Big Bend are inundated annually by numbers of snake collectors. During daylight hours, these collectors generally prefer to go unnoticed, but become obvious at night when walking highway road cuts with floodlights in search of their secretive inhabitants....
Park ponders bison vaccination The National Park Service is beginning a formal study on the question of whether it should vaccinate bison for brucellosis, using "biobullets" fired from a pneumatic rifle. If it goes ahead, this will be the first vaccination of free-roaming bison in Yellowstone National Park. Last winter, about 125 young bison were vaccinated after being captured in a trap near Gardiner. However, vaccinating a trapped bison with a hypodermic is one thing. Doing so at a distance with a free bison is another....
Column: DA's Office refutes National Seashore statements about probe of rangers At first I was simply shocked when two Park Service rangers on July 28 pepper-sprayed the eyes of a brother and sister from Inverness Park. It happened in Point Reyes Station far from park property, and both teenagers were restrained at the time, and the girl was in handcuffs. Now, however, I am increasingly confused by Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher’s handling of the incident. I have always considered Neubacher my friend even when I was decrying the Park Service’s destroying historic buildings or evicting residents from historic towns. In the past month, however, Neubacher hasn’t seemed to be the everybody’s-friend Smoky the Bear with whom we have all been familiar....
History on horseback seminar scheduled A history on horseback seminar will be offered at Big Bend National Park on Oct. 17 by the Big Bend Natural History Association. The history on horseback seminar was one of the most popular seminars introduced last year at the park. This fall, the trip will penetrate a different area of the park, taking the Apache Canyon Trail west of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to an early homestead and stone corral. Nearby is extensive evidence of the presence of Native Americans over the centuries in an area of spectacular geological variety. The trail is easy, and the views are commanding. Horses and a picnic lunch are supplied by a local outfitter....
CIRI's elite guests help bid for disputed parkland Anchorage-based Cook Inlet Region Inc. and the National Park Service are moving to resolve a long-standing legal battle over a fish camp in Lake Clark National Park that attracts high-roller executives, deep-pocketed philanthropists, and the occasional U.S. senator with a taste for silver salmon. CIRI's nonprofit organizations and the Rasmuson Foundation entertain potential donors at the rustic camp, on the western shores of Cook Inlet across from Ninilchik. The groups also hold staff retreats and strategic planning sessions at the 5-acre camp....
Official: 7 busted for illegal hunting Seven hunters received notices Wednesday morning from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for allegedly hunting dove on baited land in the south Gila Valley. Becky Wright, law enforcement program manager for the Yuma office of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said game authorities received a call Tuesday afternoon about a possible baited area off of Avenue 7E and south of Highway 95. She said officials went out to the site and determined it was baited, and this morning they said they found seven hunters illegally taking dove on the land....
Column: We Can Still Halt Bush's Assault on Wilderness The Wilderness Act was signed into law 40 years ago because Americans feared that what remained of our wild places would be paved over or plowed under if we didn't protect it. People worried that they'd no longer have wilderness in which to fish, camp, hike, canoe, hunt and savor the beauty of the great outdoors. Our species lived in the wild for eons, and even modern humans instinctively feel a profound bond with untamed landscapes. The Bush administration, however, seems to have overcome this instinct, motivated by a desire to open public lands to logging, mining and, especially, oil and gas development....
BLM mascot ‘Sluggo’ bows to old age A “resident” at the Kingman office of the Bureau of Land Management will no longer stick out his tongue at visitors. “Sluggo, “ a Gila monster kept in a large wooden cage, died Monday, apparently of old age. Bob Hall, public affairs officer for the BLM in Kingman, said the agency received Sluggo in 1984 from the Arizona Department of Game and Fish after the lizard was displaced by a housing project on the outskirts of Phoenix....
Campground unease The daytime beauty of the wilderness can turn into nighttime danger in southern Arizona campgrounds, and authorities have a warning: Be prepared. "Take time to understand the urban influence in the wilderness areas of the Tucson basin," said Vic Brown, law enforcement supervisor for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees Ironwood Forest National Monument northwest of Marana. Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers often move through the backcountry to avoid contact with the public, he said....
Column: Wilderness Act turns 40, and people are still arguing about it Few pieces of environmental legislation have had such far-reaching effects as the Wilderness Act, which observes its 40th anniversary today. The federal act designated 9.1 million acres as wilderness, described by the bill's framers as land "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." More than anything else, the 1964 bill planted the concept in the American consciousness that wilderness has innate public value, that it contributes to the common good....
Bear Hunt Foes Appeal to Governor Two animal protection groups asked Gov. Robert Ehrlich on Thursday to halt Maryland's proposed black bear hunt and conduct an independent scientific review of the bear population. The Fund for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States also said that if the hunt isn't stopped, it should be limited to private lands where bears have damaged crops or property....
Memorial to be built near birthplace of Geronimo A memorial will be built near Geronimo's birthplace near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument as a joint effort of Geronimo's family, Harlyn and Karen Geronimo of Mescalero; the Forest Service; the Trail of the Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway Committee; and the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce. "We put oral history and written history together to find the birthplace," Harlyn Geronimo said. "We made a trip up the canyon to the confluence of the Middle and West forks of the Gila River, where history said my great-grandfather was born." Harlyn Geronimo; Joe Saenz, an area Warm Springs Apache descendant; and Fran Land, scenic byway committee chairwoman, held a private prayer session at the site....
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Forest fire lookout hit by hunting arrow A volunteer forest fire lookout is in stable condition at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena after being shot in the left shoulder by a hunting arrow Thursday afternoon, authorities said. The unidentified man said the arrow fell from the sky and that he did not see anyone in the area, said Kathy Peterson, spokeswoman for the Angeles National Forest. Bow hunting season does not open until Saturday, Peterson said, which makes it a more serious violation if the incident was accidental. The Sheriff's department and the U.S. Forest Service law enforcement agency are conducting an investigation into the incident....
Conservationists Sue Federal Government to Conserve Endangered Fish Habitat Four conservation groups filed a lawsuit today in Federal District Court in Atlanta, Georgia aimed at protecting the habitat of two species of endangered fish. The Goldline Darter and the Blue Shiner are species of southeastern freshwater fish whose habitat has been markedly diminished in Georgia, Alabama (and for the Blue Shiner, also in Tennessee). Both species face extinction due to habitat destruction and fragmentation from sewage pollution, the construction of dams, sedimentation, and increased sprawl development....
5 Federal Agencies To Give National Public Lands Day Volunteers 'Fee-Free' Day Volunteers pitching in on National Public Lands Day will be rewarded with a free entry day during the next year at any public land site managed by five federal agencies. For the first time, NPLD volunteers who work at a site managed by the agencies will receive a coupon good for a "fee-free" day at any of the agency sites. Those agencies, which have entry fees, are the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and USDA Forest Service....
Arizona anglers concerned about decline in fishing The Mesa bait and tackle shop is suffering from a years-long downturn in sport fishing brought about by drought, wildfires, a soft economy, fish kills and maybe even a general lack of interest in heading out with a rod and reel. A federal study shows the number of fishing license holders in Arizona decreased by 60,000 from 445,000 in 1996 to 385,000 in 2002. Another government study says the number of anglers in the Grand Canyon State dropped from 443,000 in 1996 to 394,000 in 2001. When expenditures over the past decade are factored, the snag is even worse....
Montana, Wyoming ask judge to strike snowmobile ban Attorneys for snowmobile manufacturers, winter resorts and the states of Montana and Wyoming on Thursday implored a judge to strike down, once and for all, a Clinton-era rule banning snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Doing so would provide certainty for businesses that rely on winter use of the parks and prevent a federal judge in Washington, D.C., from resurrecting the ban a second time, the lawyers argued....
Extraordinary rainfall puts snakes on the move With extraordinary rainfall throughout the Big Bend Country in 2004, indications are that our legless friends are having a banner year. Snakes are on the move, and those encountered are apparently having plenty of success in finding prey. From mid-May to October, the communities of the Big Bend are inundated annually by numbers of snake collectors. During daylight hours, these collectors generally prefer to go unnoticed, but become obvious at night when walking highway road cuts with floodlights in search of their secretive inhabitants....
Park ponders bison vaccination The National Park Service is beginning a formal study on the question of whether it should vaccinate bison for brucellosis, using "biobullets" fired from a pneumatic rifle. If it goes ahead, this will be the first vaccination of free-roaming bison in Yellowstone National Park. Last winter, about 125 young bison were vaccinated after being captured in a trap near Gardiner. However, vaccinating a trapped bison with a hypodermic is one thing. Doing so at a distance with a free bison is another....
Column: DA's Office refutes National Seashore statements about probe of rangers At first I was simply shocked when two Park Service rangers on July 28 pepper-sprayed the eyes of a brother and sister from Inverness Park. It happened in Point Reyes Station far from park property, and both teenagers were restrained at the time, and the girl was in handcuffs. Now, however, I am increasingly confused by Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher’s handling of the incident. I have always considered Neubacher my friend even when I was decrying the Park Service’s destroying historic buildings or evicting residents from historic towns. In the past month, however, Neubacher hasn’t seemed to be the everybody’s-friend Smoky the Bear with whom we have all been familiar....
History on horseback seminar scheduled A history on horseback seminar will be offered at Big Bend National Park on Oct. 17 by the Big Bend Natural History Association. The history on horseback seminar was one of the most popular seminars introduced last year at the park. This fall, the trip will penetrate a different area of the park, taking the Apache Canyon Trail west of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to an early homestead and stone corral. Nearby is extensive evidence of the presence of Native Americans over the centuries in an area of spectacular geological variety. The trail is easy, and the views are commanding. Horses and a picnic lunch are supplied by a local outfitter....
CIRI's elite guests help bid for disputed parkland Anchorage-based Cook Inlet Region Inc. and the National Park Service are moving to resolve a long-standing legal battle over a fish camp in Lake Clark National Park that attracts high-roller executives, deep-pocketed philanthropists, and the occasional U.S. senator with a taste for silver salmon. CIRI's nonprofit organizations and the Rasmuson Foundation entertain potential donors at the rustic camp, on the western shores of Cook Inlet across from Ninilchik. The groups also hold staff retreats and strategic planning sessions at the 5-acre camp....
Official: 7 busted for illegal hunting Seven hunters received notices Wednesday morning from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for allegedly hunting dove on baited land in the south Gila Valley. Becky Wright, law enforcement program manager for the Yuma office of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said game authorities received a call Tuesday afternoon about a possible baited area off of Avenue 7E and south of Highway 95. She said officials went out to the site and determined it was baited, and this morning they said they found seven hunters illegally taking dove on the land....
Column: We Can Still Halt Bush's Assault on Wilderness The Wilderness Act was signed into law 40 years ago because Americans feared that what remained of our wild places would be paved over or plowed under if we didn't protect it. People worried that they'd no longer have wilderness in which to fish, camp, hike, canoe, hunt and savor the beauty of the great outdoors. Our species lived in the wild for eons, and even modern humans instinctively feel a profound bond with untamed landscapes. The Bush administration, however, seems to have overcome this instinct, motivated by a desire to open public lands to logging, mining and, especially, oil and gas development....
BLM mascot ‘Sluggo’ bows to old age A “resident” at the Kingman office of the Bureau of Land Management will no longer stick out his tongue at visitors. “Sluggo, “ a Gila monster kept in a large wooden cage, died Monday, apparently of old age. Bob Hall, public affairs officer for the BLM in Kingman, said the agency received Sluggo in 1984 from the Arizona Department of Game and Fish after the lizard was displaced by a housing project on the outskirts of Phoenix....
Campground unease The daytime beauty of the wilderness can turn into nighttime danger in southern Arizona campgrounds, and authorities have a warning: Be prepared. "Take time to understand the urban influence in the wilderness areas of the Tucson basin," said Vic Brown, law enforcement supervisor for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees Ironwood Forest National Monument northwest of Marana. Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers often move through the backcountry to avoid contact with the public, he said....
Column: Wilderness Act turns 40, and people are still arguing about it Few pieces of environmental legislation have had such far-reaching effects as the Wilderness Act, which observes its 40th anniversary today. The federal act designated 9.1 million acres as wilderness, described by the bill's framers as land "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." More than anything else, the 1964 bill planted the concept in the American consciousness that wilderness has innate public value, that it contributes to the common good....
Bear Hunt Foes Appeal to Governor Two animal protection groups asked Gov. Robert Ehrlich on Thursday to halt Maryland's proposed black bear hunt and conduct an independent scientific review of the bear population. The Fund for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States also said that if the hunt isn't stopped, it should be limited to private lands where bears have damaged crops or property....
Memorial to be built near birthplace of Geronimo A memorial will be built near Geronimo's birthplace near the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument as a joint effort of Geronimo's family, Harlyn and Karen Geronimo of Mescalero; the Forest Service; the Trail of the Mountain Spirits Scenic Byway Committee; and the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce. "We put oral history and written history together to find the birthplace," Harlyn Geronimo said. "We made a trip up the canyon to the confluence of the Middle and West forks of the Gila River, where history said my great-grandfather was born." Harlyn Geronimo; Joe Saenz, an area Warm Springs Apache descendant; and Fran Land, scenic byway committee chairwoman, held a private prayer session at the site....
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Truth is, the DA ain't investigating rangers in pepper spray case
Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher surprised the more than 200 people at last week’s community meeting by saying he’d asked the District Attorney’s Office to conduct its own investigation in the July 28 incident when two rangers pepper-sprayed a brother and sister, 18 and 17, from Inverness Park.
The DA’s Office this week told The Light that what the public and press understood Neubacher to mean was not accurate.
The community meeting was called after many West Marin residents were angered that the rangers – off park property in Point Reyes Station – pepper-sprayed the siblings in the eyes repeatedly although both were restrained.
Neubacher told the meeting that not only was the Park Service conducting an internal investigation into the rangers’ behavior, but the National Seashore had also asked the DA to conduct its own investigation. The park superintendent added that he hoped both investigations would come to the same conclusion.
Assistant DA Ed Berbarian, however, told The Light this week, "There has been no request from the National Park Service for an investigation with regard to the conduct of their rangers nor have we self-initiated any such investigation."
Instead, the National Seashore has asked his office to look into whether there was enough evidence to charge someone in the public with resisting arrest. He added that the DA’s Office does not deal with anyone under 18. The Park Service, he said, had directly asked the Juvenile Probation Department to see if charges could be brought against a juvenile.
Wynn Miller, the teenagers’ mother, on Monday told The Light that Juvenile Probation has now notified Jessica that it is considering whether to charge her with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor.
Who is preparing the information for the DA and Juvenile Probation to review? The county will "review evidence presented by the National Park Service," assistant DA Berbarian replied....
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Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher surprised the more than 200 people at last week’s community meeting by saying he’d asked the District Attorney’s Office to conduct its own investigation in the July 28 incident when two rangers pepper-sprayed a brother and sister, 18 and 17, from Inverness Park.
The DA’s Office this week told The Light that what the public and press understood Neubacher to mean was not accurate.
The community meeting was called after many West Marin residents were angered that the rangers – off park property in Point Reyes Station – pepper-sprayed the siblings in the eyes repeatedly although both were restrained.
Neubacher told the meeting that not only was the Park Service conducting an internal investigation into the rangers’ behavior, but the National Seashore had also asked the DA to conduct its own investigation. The park superintendent added that he hoped both investigations would come to the same conclusion.
Assistant DA Ed Berbarian, however, told The Light this week, "There has been no request from the National Park Service for an investigation with regard to the conduct of their rangers nor have we self-initiated any such investigation."
Instead, the National Seashore has asked his office to look into whether there was enough evidence to charge someone in the public with resisting arrest. He added that the DA’s Office does not deal with anyone under 18. The Park Service, he said, had directly asked the Juvenile Probation Department to see if charges could be brought against a juvenile.
Wynn Miller, the teenagers’ mother, on Monday told The Light that Juvenile Probation has now notified Jessica that it is considering whether to charge her with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor.
Who is preparing the information for the DA and Juvenile Probation to review? The county will "review evidence presented by the National Park Service," assistant DA Berbarian replied....
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Thursday, September 02, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
New effort underway to protect spotted owl An owl that lives in old-growth forests in Inland mountains and the Sierra Nevadas is facing increasing threats that could lead to its demise, environmental groups alleged. The groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild, on Wednesday filed a second petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, seeking protection for the California spotted owl on the federal endangered species list. The petition is in addition to a lawsuit filed earlier this year against the agency after it rejected the first petition....
The blighted oak For nearly a decade, scientists have been watching oaks die in Northern California's coastal forests. In some years, the blight that is killing them spreads slowly, giving scientists hope that they might figure out ways to control it before it spirals totally out of control. But in other years, it has spread much more quickly until, by now, its impact is readily apparent even to the casual observer. The cause is a disease called sudden oak death, which started cropping up in 1995 and has since killed tens of thousands of trees. And that's just the beginning: More trees are dying each month....
ATV Industry Supports U.S. Forest Service Proposal to Limit Off-Highway Vehicle Travel The Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (SVIA) supports limiting off-highway vehicle (OHV) travel to designated routes on United States Forest Service-managed land, as provided for in the Forest Service's proposed rule regarding OHV management. According to SVIA President Tim Buche, "The ATV industry shares the Forest Service's desire to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of our nation's forests for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The proper management of OHV recreational areas can help meet this objective and provide appropriate off-road riding opportunities for the over 16 million all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riders in the United States."....
Aphids Causing Aspens To Turn Early More moisture and warm weather have promoted population surges in aphids that eat the leaves of cottonwoods, aspens and box elders, experts said. Stressed by aphids and spider mites, the leaves of the deciduous trees are turning brown and dropping weeks before normal. Most of the impact is visible in urban settings where trees are under constant stress....
Agency moves to remove protection of murrelet Going against a recommendation from its own scientists, the Bush administration took another step toward removing the marbled murrelet from the threatened species list, which could ultimately increase logging in old-growth forests. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided yesterday that marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon and California, although they continue to decline in population, should not be considered for protection apart from their more abundant cousins in Canada and Alaska....
Legal Agreement sets Timeline to Protect Seven Imperiled Swallowtail Butterflies The Center for Biological Diversity and the Xerces Society yesterday reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on a timeline to protect seven foreign swallowtail butterfly species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Specifically, the FWS has agreed to make a final decision as to whether or not these butterflies warrant threatened or endangered status under the ESA. The FWS must make this ruling by November 30, 2004. On January 10, 1994, the FWS received a petition to list seven foreign swallowtail butterfly species as threatened or endangered under the ESA....
Timber Rattlers Take Over Town Residents of one town are on the lookout for some unwanted neighbors: more than a dozen timber rattlesnakes. Animal control workers have wrangled over a dozen timber rattlesnakes around homes in the town of Ringwood, N.J. But officials said there is only so much residents can do -- the reptiles are protected under state law as an endangered species. Residents have been adivised to stay away from the snakes and call for help....
Elk to be killed to control growth of herd Federal wildlife officials have approved a plan to kill as many as 60 elk to control the burgeoning population in a protected area near the Hanford nuclear reservation. Initially, five cow elk would be shot by state or federal wildlife agents within the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. Over time, the plan would cull about 10 percent of the Rattlesnake Mountain elk herd that has grown to 600....
Yellowstone leads parks in ranger attacks 2003 was a rough year for law enforcement rangers at Yellowstone National Park. They were shoved, hit, grabbed and threatened with a gun, a knife and even a wooden shelf. For the 103 law enforcement rangers in Yellowstone last year, there were 32 reports of threats and assaults, by far more than at any other national park in the United States, according to 2003 figures. Twenty of those incidents were threats - instances in which rangers believed an assailant would carry out harm - and the rest were assaults....
Federal help sought on air pollution Two conservation groups on Wednesday urged the U.S. Interior Department to take immediate action to protect Rocky Mountain National Park from air pollution drifting into the mountains from urban areas to the east. Environmental Defense and Colorado Trout Unlimited filed an administrative petition with Interior Secretary Gale Norton's office and with Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker. The 47-page document asks the Interior Department to declare that the park is being harmed by air pollution, to establish caps on pollution levels in the park, and to push state and federal regulatory agencies to fix the problem....
BLM divvies up desert playground The Bureau of Land Management recently released a final management and recreation plan for 72,235 acres of desert lands north of Fruita. The amended plan gives mountain bikers 5,298 acres of cheatgrass-tufted rolling hills and rocky ledges to call their own. Motorized visitors have a designated 435-acre area for zipping around off trails. About 65 miles of existing user-created trails will be closed and 8.5 miles of new biking trails will be created....
Energy Industry, the Party Animals Corporate invitation-only parties have become a staple of political conventions. And one big player serving as party host this year in Boston, where the Democrats gathered last month, and in New York, where the Republicans are meeting, is the energy industry. The party for Barton was paid for by the Edison Electric Institute, the American Gas Assn., the National Mining Assn. and the Nuclear Energy Institute. In the presidential race, energy campaign dollars have gone overwhelmingly to President Bush. But the money spent on corporate parties at conventions is unregulated and its use more nuanced....
Groups look to stop drilling A coalition of conservation groups filed suit Wednesday to stop drilling in the Desolation Flats area of Adobe Town while the merits of a larger case are being decided. The request for a "stay" was filed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C. "We'd like them to cease and desist with the bulldozing until the court can decide whether the project is even valid," Erik Molvar with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance said....
BLM may try horse birth control There are nearly 200 wild horses in the Antelope Hills/Cyclone Rim herd south of Lander. The problem is there are only supposed to be from 60 to 80 horses. So federal land managers plan to use roundups and a fertility control program to significantly reduce wild horse numbers in the southwestern Wyoming herd later this fall....
BLM spikes big coal sale More than $100 million that would have flowed to the state's School Capital Construction Account will not flow there now, because the federal government thinks the state is entitled to more. That's one consequence of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's decision this week to reject the $237.5 million bid of BTU Western Resources Inc., for about 324.6 million tons of coal. The company, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy Corp., was the sole bidder at a BLM auction Tuesday for the North Antelope Rochelle North tract, which the company had nominated for a lease auction....
County's drilling review limited Pitkin County government is accustomed to flexing its muscles on land-use issues but it's uncertain if there is much to flex when it comes to regulating the natural gas industry. County officials are assessing this week how much regulatory power they have over gas well drilling in the extreme western part of the county - where exploration is looming. The county has some review powers on "off-site impacts" such as air quality, water quality, noise and effects on roads - but how much is open to debate. The state government, through the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission, exercises most of the review power and claims it as its exclusive domain....
Bunkhouse to hit the Bradenton trail A one-of-a-kind cowboy bunkhouse dating from 1915 is being moved to Bradenton, preserving a piece of ranching history. George Harrison, former owner of Harrison Ranch, said the bunkhouse was a place cowboys could rest their heads when it got late or a place for them to get an early start the next day. In 1915, Wildes and Furman Harrison constructed a small bunkhouse that could sleep about five or six. The bunkhouse was used until the 1950s....
A Historical Perspective of the Western Trail The image of a dusty cowhand trailing a giant herd of longhorns across an unspoiled plain, looking to the far horizon and dreaming of the whisky and girls at the end of the trail is one which pervades our collective image of Texas and the West. In reality it was a hard dangerous trek and one that was abandoned as soon as a reasonable option was available. The era of the cattle drive lasted only as long as it took for the rail lines to reach south into Texas and find their way ever westward into cow country. Yet the audacious nature of the enterprise is a iconic legend that speaks of a undaunted people carving out a new nation and doing what they had to in order to make it work, it is this image that I suspect has branded itself into our psyche and thus has enshrined the “cattle drive” as a symbol of the American West....
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New effort underway to protect spotted owl An owl that lives in old-growth forests in Inland mountains and the Sierra Nevadas is facing increasing threats that could lead to its demise, environmental groups alleged. The groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild, on Wednesday filed a second petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, seeking protection for the California spotted owl on the federal endangered species list. The petition is in addition to a lawsuit filed earlier this year against the agency after it rejected the first petition....
The blighted oak For nearly a decade, scientists have been watching oaks die in Northern California's coastal forests. In some years, the blight that is killing them spreads slowly, giving scientists hope that they might figure out ways to control it before it spirals totally out of control. But in other years, it has spread much more quickly until, by now, its impact is readily apparent even to the casual observer. The cause is a disease called sudden oak death, which started cropping up in 1995 and has since killed tens of thousands of trees. And that's just the beginning: More trees are dying each month....
ATV Industry Supports U.S. Forest Service Proposal to Limit Off-Highway Vehicle Travel The Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (SVIA) supports limiting off-highway vehicle (OHV) travel to designated routes on United States Forest Service-managed land, as provided for in the Forest Service's proposed rule regarding OHV management. According to SVIA President Tim Buche, "The ATV industry shares the Forest Service's desire to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of our nation's forests for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The proper management of OHV recreational areas can help meet this objective and provide appropriate off-road riding opportunities for the over 16 million all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riders in the United States."....
Aphids Causing Aspens To Turn Early More moisture and warm weather have promoted population surges in aphids that eat the leaves of cottonwoods, aspens and box elders, experts said. Stressed by aphids and spider mites, the leaves of the deciduous trees are turning brown and dropping weeks before normal. Most of the impact is visible in urban settings where trees are under constant stress....
Agency moves to remove protection of murrelet Going against a recommendation from its own scientists, the Bush administration took another step toward removing the marbled murrelet from the threatened species list, which could ultimately increase logging in old-growth forests. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided yesterday that marbled murrelets in Washington, Oregon and California, although they continue to decline in population, should not be considered for protection apart from their more abundant cousins in Canada and Alaska....
Legal Agreement sets Timeline to Protect Seven Imperiled Swallowtail Butterflies The Center for Biological Diversity and the Xerces Society yesterday reached an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on a timeline to protect seven foreign swallowtail butterfly species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Specifically, the FWS has agreed to make a final decision as to whether or not these butterflies warrant threatened or endangered status under the ESA. The FWS must make this ruling by November 30, 2004. On January 10, 1994, the FWS received a petition to list seven foreign swallowtail butterfly species as threatened or endangered under the ESA....
Timber Rattlers Take Over Town Residents of one town are on the lookout for some unwanted neighbors: more than a dozen timber rattlesnakes. Animal control workers have wrangled over a dozen timber rattlesnakes around homes in the town of Ringwood, N.J. But officials said there is only so much residents can do -- the reptiles are protected under state law as an endangered species. Residents have been adivised to stay away from the snakes and call for help....
Elk to be killed to control growth of herd Federal wildlife officials have approved a plan to kill as many as 60 elk to control the burgeoning population in a protected area near the Hanford nuclear reservation. Initially, five cow elk would be shot by state or federal wildlife agents within the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. Over time, the plan would cull about 10 percent of the Rattlesnake Mountain elk herd that has grown to 600....
Yellowstone leads parks in ranger attacks 2003 was a rough year for law enforcement rangers at Yellowstone National Park. They were shoved, hit, grabbed and threatened with a gun, a knife and even a wooden shelf. For the 103 law enforcement rangers in Yellowstone last year, there were 32 reports of threats and assaults, by far more than at any other national park in the United States, according to 2003 figures. Twenty of those incidents were threats - instances in which rangers believed an assailant would carry out harm - and the rest were assaults....
Federal help sought on air pollution Two conservation groups on Wednesday urged the U.S. Interior Department to take immediate action to protect Rocky Mountain National Park from air pollution drifting into the mountains from urban areas to the east. Environmental Defense and Colorado Trout Unlimited filed an administrative petition with Interior Secretary Gale Norton's office and with Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker. The 47-page document asks the Interior Department to declare that the park is being harmed by air pollution, to establish caps on pollution levels in the park, and to push state and federal regulatory agencies to fix the problem....
BLM divvies up desert playground The Bureau of Land Management recently released a final management and recreation plan for 72,235 acres of desert lands north of Fruita. The amended plan gives mountain bikers 5,298 acres of cheatgrass-tufted rolling hills and rocky ledges to call their own. Motorized visitors have a designated 435-acre area for zipping around off trails. About 65 miles of existing user-created trails will be closed and 8.5 miles of new biking trails will be created....
Energy Industry, the Party Animals Corporate invitation-only parties have become a staple of political conventions. And one big player serving as party host this year in Boston, where the Democrats gathered last month, and in New York, where the Republicans are meeting, is the energy industry. The party for Barton was paid for by the Edison Electric Institute, the American Gas Assn., the National Mining Assn. and the Nuclear Energy Institute. In the presidential race, energy campaign dollars have gone overwhelmingly to President Bush. But the money spent on corporate parties at conventions is unregulated and its use more nuanced....
Groups look to stop drilling A coalition of conservation groups filed suit Wednesday to stop drilling in the Desolation Flats area of Adobe Town while the merits of a larger case are being decided. The request for a "stay" was filed with the Interior Board of Land Appeals in Washington, D.C. "We'd like them to cease and desist with the bulldozing until the court can decide whether the project is even valid," Erik Molvar with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance said....
BLM may try horse birth control There are nearly 200 wild horses in the Antelope Hills/Cyclone Rim herd south of Lander. The problem is there are only supposed to be from 60 to 80 horses. So federal land managers plan to use roundups and a fertility control program to significantly reduce wild horse numbers in the southwestern Wyoming herd later this fall....
BLM spikes big coal sale More than $100 million that would have flowed to the state's School Capital Construction Account will not flow there now, because the federal government thinks the state is entitled to more. That's one consequence of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's decision this week to reject the $237.5 million bid of BTU Western Resources Inc., for about 324.6 million tons of coal. The company, a subsidiary of Peabody Energy Corp., was the sole bidder at a BLM auction Tuesday for the North Antelope Rochelle North tract, which the company had nominated for a lease auction....
County's drilling review limited Pitkin County government is accustomed to flexing its muscles on land-use issues but it's uncertain if there is much to flex when it comes to regulating the natural gas industry. County officials are assessing this week how much regulatory power they have over gas well drilling in the extreme western part of the county - where exploration is looming. The county has some review powers on "off-site impacts" such as air quality, water quality, noise and effects on roads - but how much is open to debate. The state government, through the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission, exercises most of the review power and claims it as its exclusive domain....
Bunkhouse to hit the Bradenton trail A one-of-a-kind cowboy bunkhouse dating from 1915 is being moved to Bradenton, preserving a piece of ranching history. George Harrison, former owner of Harrison Ranch, said the bunkhouse was a place cowboys could rest their heads when it got late or a place for them to get an early start the next day. In 1915, Wildes and Furman Harrison constructed a small bunkhouse that could sleep about five or six. The bunkhouse was used until the 1950s....
A Historical Perspective of the Western Trail The image of a dusty cowhand trailing a giant herd of longhorns across an unspoiled plain, looking to the far horizon and dreaming of the whisky and girls at the end of the trail is one which pervades our collective image of Texas and the West. In reality it was a hard dangerous trek and one that was abandoned as soon as a reasonable option was available. The era of the cattle drive lasted only as long as it took for the rail lines to reach south into Texas and find their way ever westward into cow country. Yet the audacious nature of the enterprise is a iconic legend that speaks of a undaunted people carving out a new nation and doing what they had to in order to make it work, it is this image that I suspect has branded itself into our psyche and thus has enshrined the “cattle drive” as a symbol of the American West....
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Nevada Live Stock Association Thrilled Judge Says "No"
For Immediate Release
Reno, NV 9/1/04 Second Judicial District Court Judge, Janet Berry, on August 26, dismissed the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s Petition for Judicial Confirmation thereby denying the State’s request to "retroactively confirm its actions" in the highly publicized, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) para-military style cattle impoundments in Nevada. Agriculture Department Director, Don Henderson had petitioned the Court for the retroactive judicial blessing of the Department’s procedure for transferring ownership of cattle on the mere signatures of an agent of the BLM.
"We were delighted with the Court’s dismissal of this case," commented Nevada Live Stock Association Chairman and former U.S. Congressman Helen Chenoweth-Hage. "It is clear there is no blessing from the Court for the BLM or anyone to take property while avoiding proper due process of law, in particular, the necessary step of seeking a court order before they seize and sell a rancher’s very livelihood in his live stock."
Nevada Live Stock Association’s (NLSA) defending attorneys, Michael Van Zandt, of San Francisco, CA, and Joel Hansen of Las Vegas, were also pleased with the ruling. Van Zandt commented, "We are happy with the result in that the Court denied the Petition and in essence has given no judicial approval for these cattle confiscations. We don’t believe the Agriculture Department should be abdicating the State’s responsibilities under the brand laws to the federal government. The State cannot compromise away personal private property without due process of law. They are shirking the responsibility the Nevada legislature has imposed on the Department of Agriculture State and abandoning its citizens."
David Holmgren, NLSA Vice Chairman, his wife Jackie Holmgren ranchers from Mineral County and Bevan Lister, NLSA member and rancher from Pioche, Nevada, had testified before Judge Berry. After receiving notice of the ruling David Holmgren said, "This is no small matter for Nevada’s ranchers or the West as a whole. We as an organization have once again fought the good fight against those who should have known better. It defies cowboy logic that the BLM was able to take our own brand department into partnership with them, use an unconstitutional cooperative agreement to, loosely speaking...rustle, the very cattle they were formed to protect! Charley Russell himself couldn't paint that picture."
The Court found that the law the Department invoked for seeking judicial confirmation, "is unconstitutional as it violates the separation of powers clause of the Nevada Constitution." Instead, the Court urged the damaged parties, specifically Bevan Lister, a Lincoln County rancher, and the Nevada Live Stock Association (NLSA) to seek a legislative remedy for the "important concerns of Nevada Ranchers."
"I’m not sure we need a legislative fix. What we do need is for the agencies, both federal and state, to respect the existing laws that are on the books," commented NLSA Board Member, Ramona Morrison.
In a related matter, an Esmeralda County Grand Jury has convened to determine if head Brand Inspector, Jim Connelley, violated state law by transferring ownership of Esmeralda County rancher Ben Colvin’s livestock in August of 2001 to the BLM on the mere signatures of a State brand inspector and BLM agent. Based upon the Court’s ruling the Grand Jury may conclude that is exactly what happened.
# # # # #
For further information contact: David and Jackie Holmgren 406-321-1215 (cell) or Ramona Morrison 775-722-2517. Attorney Michael J. Van Zandt can be reached at 415-905-0200.
Nevada Live Stock Association
9732 State Route 445, #305
Sparks, NV 89436
rhmorrison@sbcglobal.net
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For Immediate Release
Reno, NV 9/1/04 Second Judicial District Court Judge, Janet Berry, on August 26, dismissed the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s Petition for Judicial Confirmation thereby denying the State’s request to "retroactively confirm its actions" in the highly publicized, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) para-military style cattle impoundments in Nevada. Agriculture Department Director, Don Henderson had petitioned the Court for the retroactive judicial blessing of the Department’s procedure for transferring ownership of cattle on the mere signatures of an agent of the BLM.
"We were delighted with the Court’s dismissal of this case," commented Nevada Live Stock Association Chairman and former U.S. Congressman Helen Chenoweth-Hage. "It is clear there is no blessing from the Court for the BLM or anyone to take property while avoiding proper due process of law, in particular, the necessary step of seeking a court order before they seize and sell a rancher’s very livelihood in his live stock."
Nevada Live Stock Association’s (NLSA) defending attorneys, Michael Van Zandt, of San Francisco, CA, and Joel Hansen of Las Vegas, were also pleased with the ruling. Van Zandt commented, "We are happy with the result in that the Court denied the Petition and in essence has given no judicial approval for these cattle confiscations. We don’t believe the Agriculture Department should be abdicating the State’s responsibilities under the brand laws to the federal government. The State cannot compromise away personal private property without due process of law. They are shirking the responsibility the Nevada legislature has imposed on the Department of Agriculture State and abandoning its citizens."
David Holmgren, NLSA Vice Chairman, his wife Jackie Holmgren ranchers from Mineral County and Bevan Lister, NLSA member and rancher from Pioche, Nevada, had testified before Judge Berry. After receiving notice of the ruling David Holmgren said, "This is no small matter for Nevada’s ranchers or the West as a whole. We as an organization have once again fought the good fight against those who should have known better. It defies cowboy logic that the BLM was able to take our own brand department into partnership with them, use an unconstitutional cooperative agreement to, loosely speaking...rustle, the very cattle they were formed to protect! Charley Russell himself couldn't paint that picture."
The Court found that the law the Department invoked for seeking judicial confirmation, "is unconstitutional as it violates the separation of powers clause of the Nevada Constitution." Instead, the Court urged the damaged parties, specifically Bevan Lister, a Lincoln County rancher, and the Nevada Live Stock Association (NLSA) to seek a legislative remedy for the "important concerns of Nevada Ranchers."
"I’m not sure we need a legislative fix. What we do need is for the agencies, both federal and state, to respect the existing laws that are on the books," commented NLSA Board Member, Ramona Morrison.
In a related matter, an Esmeralda County Grand Jury has convened to determine if head Brand Inspector, Jim Connelley, violated state law by transferring ownership of Esmeralda County rancher Ben Colvin’s livestock in August of 2001 to the BLM on the mere signatures of a State brand inspector and BLM agent. Based upon the Court’s ruling the Grand Jury may conclude that is exactly what happened.
# # # # #
For further information contact: David and Jackie Holmgren 406-321-1215 (cell) or Ramona Morrison 775-722-2517. Attorney Michael J. Van Zandt can be reached at 415-905-0200.
Nevada Live Stock Association
9732 State Route 445, #305
Sparks, NV 89436
rhmorrison@sbcglobal.net
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Report: Cities' Water Needs Will Dry Up Farmland About 10 percent of irrigated farmland statewide is expected to disappear by 2030 as thirsty cities try to buy their water, according to a new state study. That amounts to as much as 300,000 acres, an area bigger than Rocky Mountain National Park, the study said. The findings come from the $2.7 million Statewide Water Supply Initiative, sponsored by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The study, launched 14 months ago in response to the drought, is to be completed in November. It is designed to show policymakers how much water the state uses, how much it will need and where supplies will come from....
Landowners deride new proposal The Wyoming Surface Owner Coordination Act offers a way for landowners to resolve conflicts with the owners of the mineral rights underneath the surface, a coalition of energy and agriculture groups told the 11-member Joint Executive Legislative Committee on Split Estates. But some landowners, many of whom are ranchers or inherited ranch land, told the committee at the hearing at the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that the proposal favors the energy industry and will do nothing to solve their problems of ruined property values....
Appalachian Trail is vulnerable to new forest rules About one of every 13 miles of the Appalachian Trail between Maine and Georgia passes through national forests where a Bush administration plan could allow clear cutting of wooded areas, an environmental group said Tuesday. The Campaign to Protect America's Lands said it found that 163 of the popular trail's 2,174 miles fall within the 58 million acres where the Bush administration proposed lifting a ban on logging, road-building, and other development....
Unhappy campers protest Bush plans A dozen lovers of backcountry pitched tents at the U.S. Forest Service regional office Tuesday to protest President Bush's plans to open roadless areas. "Public lands don't just belong to the Bush administration," said Rebecca Dickson of the Sierra Club. "They don't just belong to the mining or logging industry."....
Report details global warming's role in wildfire risk Of all the Western states, Montana's wildfire season could be most affected by the warmer temperatures associated with global climate change, according to a new report. Published in Conservation Biology magazine, the research suggests the acreage burned each summer in Montana could increase five-fold by the end of the century. And more frequent, more extensive wildfires would likely reduce the number and size of the state's already patchy old-growth forests, in turn threatening the existence of old growth-dependent species, said researchers at the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Portland, Ore., and the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington. Overall, the area burned by wildfires in 11 Western states could double by 2100 if the summertime climate warms by 1.6 degrees, the scientists said....
Interior encourages BLM land sales In August, Assistant Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett, who oversees the BLM, wrote to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., asking for legislative amendments to FLTFA that would encourage the BLM to sell off more land. She has asked Congress to make the identification and selling of disposable land an ongoing process, rather than one limited to land identified before the July 2000 cutoff date. Twenty percent of any revenue would still go to the BLM’s administrative costs, but under Scarlett’s proposal, only 60 percent of the money would go toward land acquisition. The other 20 percent would go toward "conservation enhancement projects," to fund local projects such as riparian improvement or removing invasive weeds....
Proposals target invasive weeds The U.S. Forest Service wants to change procedures it uses to control invasive weeds in Northwest forests. In a draft environmental impact statement, the agency is proposing to kill weeds through hand pulling and applying an expanded roster of herbicides; and, it wants to require logging contractors to wash their heavy equipment and tour guides to feed their horses weed-free feed - both to prevent the spread of seeds. Aggressive weeds have invaded 420,000 acres of 24 million acres of federal forest land in Washington and Oregon, agency statistics show....
Billings County officials at odds with Forest Service Billings County officials say Forest Service firefighting methods in the grasslands are a waste of money. In one fire, elite smoke jumpers dropped onto a hay field, jumped into a van and were driven to fight a fire on the Little Missouri National Grasslands northeast of Medora. "The smoke jumpers never jumped on the line. They could have driven to anywhere on the fire," said Billings County fire chief Don Heiser....
Second Timber Sale Approved Since Overturning of Roadless Rule Last week, the U.S. Forest Service approved another timber sale in an area previously protected from logging by the controversial Clinton-era "roadless rule." Both of the new timber sales are to take place in Southeast Alaska, where dwindling natural resources and a sluggish economy have conspired to drive unemployment rates to unprecedented highs. This latest sale under the new plan is scheduled to take place on Gravina Island, across Tongass Narrows from Ketchikan, and would yield 38 million board feet of timber from approximately 1,800 acres. The first sale since overturning the roadless rule—a 665-acre harvest on Kuiu Island nearby—was approved last month....
Director of off-road vehicle group cited for unlicensed outfitting The director of the BlueRibbon Coalition has been placed on indefinite administrative leave after being cited earlier this month for outfitting without a license in the Sawtooth National Forest. Bill Dart was placed on leave without pay pending resolution of the charge against him, said Clark Collins, former director of the off-road vehicle group who is serving as acting director in the interim....
Spotted owl habitat plan ruffles feathers The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 8.6 million acres of forests in Arizona and three other states as critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl, a plan critics say could actually speed the demise of the threatened bird. Federal officials said Tuesday the proposal complies with a court order to designate habitat for the owl, but environmental groups accuse the agency of ignoring science and favoring the timber industry. The groups say they will ask a judge to reject this plan as he did the last one....
U.S. Says It Won't Remove Dams The Bush administration announced Tuesday that it will not remove dams on the Columbia and Snake river system to save endangered salmon. The announcement rules out what the federal government had once described as the most scientifically sound -- if politically problematic -- method for saving salmon in the heavily dammed river system....
Column: Poisons with purpose This may sound harsh, but it's true: Environmentalists tend not to see, handle or understand fish, to distrust agencies dedicated to their recovery and to set up mental spam-filters for facts about short-lived fish poisons. Usually, these poisons are the only tools managers have for saving native trout from being eaten, outcompeted or hybridized out of existence by alien species. During the 70 years that fish managers have used the fish poison rotenone - derived from derris root - there is not one documented case of human injury....
EPA appears set to relax standards for toxic metal Over the objections of several federal scientists, the Bush administration is preparing to relax national standards for selenium - a toxic metal that caused mass deformities of waterfowl in California's Central Valley during the 1980s. The revised U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards are outlined in an EPA draft notice obtained by The Sacramento Bee. Critics say the proposed standards are based on a study that even its author says was interpreted improperly. The standards follow years of lobbying by power companies, farming interests and mining officials, all of whom say the current federal standards are overly restrictive....
Group deems brucellosis goal too rosy Wyoming wildlife officials say 2010 is an unrealistic goal for an interagency committee to eliminate brucellosis in the Yellowstone region. The goal of the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee (GYIBC) is to wipe out the contagious disease by 2010, but that date set a decade ago was too optimistic, members said....
Enzi mulls Mormon Trail fees While there are instances where fees paid for public land use are necessary, U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has not yet decided on a proposal to waive fees on a portion of Wyoming's historic trails. Enzi said last week he has been approached by members of the Mormon Church to waive a proposed $4 fee per person per night for use of the historic Mormon Trail on Bureau of Land Management property west of Casper....
Agency raises offer for Fallon water rights A state agency trying to settle a water dispute by buying and retiring thousands of acre-feet of water rights from willing Fallon-area farmers has sweetened its offer by $600 per acre-foot. The Carson Water Subconservancy District said it will pay $2,200 per water right acre on the Carson River and $3,800 per acre-foot for Truckee River water rights in the Newlands Project. The subconservancy district is hoping to purchase and retire 6,500 acre-feet of water rights in the Newlands Project by July 2006. It’s an attempt to settle more than 2,000 protests of Newlands Project water rights claims filed by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe....
Editorial: Washoe County land grab Evans Creek proceeded to jump through all the proper regulatory hoops -- no matter how Byzantine -- in order to proceed with the peaceful and orderly development of its land. But it soon became obvious (according to Timothy Nelson, an officer for the firm) that the county was pursuing a "sometimes-deceptive agenda" actually designed not to help the owners meet local zoning ordinances, but to in fact prevent any development of the land at all, squeezing Evans Creek into selling off a property thus rendered worthless by regulation, at a lowball price. Sure enough, Washoe County officials last Friday filed a lawsuit seeking to "condemn" the 1,019-acre Ballardini Ranch and "preserve the land as public open space." Environmentalists hailed this complete disregard for private property rights....
Judge orders cattlemen to pay $70,000 for Tyson attorneys' fees A federal judge ordered cattlemen who sued Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. to pay the company $70,000 in attorneys' fees after a verdict in the cattlemen's favor was thrown out for a lack of evidence. Six cattlemen, claiming to represent thousands more, sued in 1994 claiming Tyson had used contracts with a select few ranchers to drive down the price of cattle on the open, or cash, market....
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Report: Cities' Water Needs Will Dry Up Farmland About 10 percent of irrigated farmland statewide is expected to disappear by 2030 as thirsty cities try to buy their water, according to a new state study. That amounts to as much as 300,000 acres, an area bigger than Rocky Mountain National Park, the study said. The findings come from the $2.7 million Statewide Water Supply Initiative, sponsored by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The study, launched 14 months ago in response to the drought, is to be completed in November. It is designed to show policymakers how much water the state uses, how much it will need and where supplies will come from....
Landowners deride new proposal The Wyoming Surface Owner Coordination Act offers a way for landowners to resolve conflicts with the owners of the mineral rights underneath the surface, a coalition of energy and agriculture groups told the 11-member Joint Executive Legislative Committee on Split Estates. But some landowners, many of whom are ranchers or inherited ranch land, told the committee at the hearing at the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that the proposal favors the energy industry and will do nothing to solve their problems of ruined property values....
Appalachian Trail is vulnerable to new forest rules About one of every 13 miles of the Appalachian Trail between Maine and Georgia passes through national forests where a Bush administration plan could allow clear cutting of wooded areas, an environmental group said Tuesday. The Campaign to Protect America's Lands said it found that 163 of the popular trail's 2,174 miles fall within the 58 million acres where the Bush administration proposed lifting a ban on logging, road-building, and other development....
Unhappy campers protest Bush plans A dozen lovers of backcountry pitched tents at the U.S. Forest Service regional office Tuesday to protest President Bush's plans to open roadless areas. "Public lands don't just belong to the Bush administration," said Rebecca Dickson of the Sierra Club. "They don't just belong to the mining or logging industry."....
Report details global warming's role in wildfire risk Of all the Western states, Montana's wildfire season could be most affected by the warmer temperatures associated with global climate change, according to a new report. Published in Conservation Biology magazine, the research suggests the acreage burned each summer in Montana could increase five-fold by the end of the century. And more frequent, more extensive wildfires would likely reduce the number and size of the state's already patchy old-growth forests, in turn threatening the existence of old growth-dependent species, said researchers at the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Portland, Ore., and the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington. Overall, the area burned by wildfires in 11 Western states could double by 2100 if the summertime climate warms by 1.6 degrees, the scientists said....
Interior encourages BLM land sales In August, Assistant Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett, who oversees the BLM, wrote to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., asking for legislative amendments to FLTFA that would encourage the BLM to sell off more land. She has asked Congress to make the identification and selling of disposable land an ongoing process, rather than one limited to land identified before the July 2000 cutoff date. Twenty percent of any revenue would still go to the BLM’s administrative costs, but under Scarlett’s proposal, only 60 percent of the money would go toward land acquisition. The other 20 percent would go toward "conservation enhancement projects," to fund local projects such as riparian improvement or removing invasive weeds....
Proposals target invasive weeds The U.S. Forest Service wants to change procedures it uses to control invasive weeds in Northwest forests. In a draft environmental impact statement, the agency is proposing to kill weeds through hand pulling and applying an expanded roster of herbicides; and, it wants to require logging contractors to wash their heavy equipment and tour guides to feed their horses weed-free feed - both to prevent the spread of seeds. Aggressive weeds have invaded 420,000 acres of 24 million acres of federal forest land in Washington and Oregon, agency statistics show....
Billings County officials at odds with Forest Service Billings County officials say Forest Service firefighting methods in the grasslands are a waste of money. In one fire, elite smoke jumpers dropped onto a hay field, jumped into a van and were driven to fight a fire on the Little Missouri National Grasslands northeast of Medora. "The smoke jumpers never jumped on the line. They could have driven to anywhere on the fire," said Billings County fire chief Don Heiser....
Second Timber Sale Approved Since Overturning of Roadless Rule Last week, the U.S. Forest Service approved another timber sale in an area previously protected from logging by the controversial Clinton-era "roadless rule." Both of the new timber sales are to take place in Southeast Alaska, where dwindling natural resources and a sluggish economy have conspired to drive unemployment rates to unprecedented highs. This latest sale under the new plan is scheduled to take place on Gravina Island, across Tongass Narrows from Ketchikan, and would yield 38 million board feet of timber from approximately 1,800 acres. The first sale since overturning the roadless rule—a 665-acre harvest on Kuiu Island nearby—was approved last month....
Director of off-road vehicle group cited for unlicensed outfitting The director of the BlueRibbon Coalition has been placed on indefinite administrative leave after being cited earlier this month for outfitting without a license in the Sawtooth National Forest. Bill Dart was placed on leave without pay pending resolution of the charge against him, said Clark Collins, former director of the off-road vehicle group who is serving as acting director in the interim....
Spotted owl habitat plan ruffles feathers The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 8.6 million acres of forests in Arizona and three other states as critical habitat for the Mexican spotted owl, a plan critics say could actually speed the demise of the threatened bird. Federal officials said Tuesday the proposal complies with a court order to designate habitat for the owl, but environmental groups accuse the agency of ignoring science and favoring the timber industry. The groups say they will ask a judge to reject this plan as he did the last one....
U.S. Says It Won't Remove Dams The Bush administration announced Tuesday that it will not remove dams on the Columbia and Snake river system to save endangered salmon. The announcement rules out what the federal government had once described as the most scientifically sound -- if politically problematic -- method for saving salmon in the heavily dammed river system....
Column: Poisons with purpose This may sound harsh, but it's true: Environmentalists tend not to see, handle or understand fish, to distrust agencies dedicated to their recovery and to set up mental spam-filters for facts about short-lived fish poisons. Usually, these poisons are the only tools managers have for saving native trout from being eaten, outcompeted or hybridized out of existence by alien species. During the 70 years that fish managers have used the fish poison rotenone - derived from derris root - there is not one documented case of human injury....
EPA appears set to relax standards for toxic metal Over the objections of several federal scientists, the Bush administration is preparing to relax national standards for selenium - a toxic metal that caused mass deformities of waterfowl in California's Central Valley during the 1980s. The revised U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards are outlined in an EPA draft notice obtained by The Sacramento Bee. Critics say the proposed standards are based on a study that even its author says was interpreted improperly. The standards follow years of lobbying by power companies, farming interests and mining officials, all of whom say the current federal standards are overly restrictive....
Group deems brucellosis goal too rosy Wyoming wildlife officials say 2010 is an unrealistic goal for an interagency committee to eliminate brucellosis in the Yellowstone region. The goal of the Greater Yellowstone Interagency Brucellosis Committee (GYIBC) is to wipe out the contagious disease by 2010, but that date set a decade ago was too optimistic, members said....
Enzi mulls Mormon Trail fees While there are instances where fees paid for public land use are necessary, U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has not yet decided on a proposal to waive fees on a portion of Wyoming's historic trails. Enzi said last week he has been approached by members of the Mormon Church to waive a proposed $4 fee per person per night for use of the historic Mormon Trail on Bureau of Land Management property west of Casper....
Agency raises offer for Fallon water rights A state agency trying to settle a water dispute by buying and retiring thousands of acre-feet of water rights from willing Fallon-area farmers has sweetened its offer by $600 per acre-foot. The Carson Water Subconservancy District said it will pay $2,200 per water right acre on the Carson River and $3,800 per acre-foot for Truckee River water rights in the Newlands Project. The subconservancy district is hoping to purchase and retire 6,500 acre-feet of water rights in the Newlands Project by July 2006. It’s an attempt to settle more than 2,000 protests of Newlands Project water rights claims filed by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe....
Editorial: Washoe County land grab Evans Creek proceeded to jump through all the proper regulatory hoops -- no matter how Byzantine -- in order to proceed with the peaceful and orderly development of its land. But it soon became obvious (according to Timothy Nelson, an officer for the firm) that the county was pursuing a "sometimes-deceptive agenda" actually designed not to help the owners meet local zoning ordinances, but to in fact prevent any development of the land at all, squeezing Evans Creek into selling off a property thus rendered worthless by regulation, at a lowball price. Sure enough, Washoe County officials last Friday filed a lawsuit seeking to "condemn" the 1,019-acre Ballardini Ranch and "preserve the land as public open space." Environmentalists hailed this complete disregard for private property rights....
Judge orders cattlemen to pay $70,000 for Tyson attorneys' fees A federal judge ordered cattlemen who sued Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. to pay the company $70,000 in attorneys' fees after a verdict in the cattlemen's favor was thrown out for a lack of evidence. Six cattlemen, claiming to represent thousands more, sued in 1994 claiming Tyson had used contracts with a select few ranchers to drive down the price of cattle on the open, or cash, market....
Permalink 1 comments
FOREST SERVICE MINING RULE
This information was sent along by Julie Kay Smithson at www.PropertyRightsResearch.org.
The deadline for comments is September 7th.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Any faxed correspondence should have the following as a heading:
USDA-Forest Service, Minerals and Geology Management (MGM)
Staff (2810)
Mail Stop 1126
Washington, DC 20250-1125
36cfr228a@fs.fed.us
703-605-4852
Fax: 703-605-1575
Attn: Secretary Ann Veneman; Undersecretary Mark Rey; Director of Minerals and Geology Management; and Staff Member Sam Hotchkiss
Re: PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THE INTERIM RULE
In accordance with the Request for Public Comments and Notice of Interim Rule:
Federal Register Notice, Friday, July 9 2004, (69 FR 41428)(2004 WL 1530411 (F.R.)), (RIN 0596-AC17) Interim Rule, allegedly, interpreting 36 CFR § 228.4, (the "Interim Rule"), and was signed by Mark Rey.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/shastatrinity/news/2004/releases/046-aug3-mining-regulations.shtml
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/nezperce/newsreleases/mining_regulations_07_15_04.pdf
Dear Secretary Veneman, Undersecretary Rey; Mr. Hotchkiss, and Director of MGM:
August 9, 2004
My name is Patrick Keene; I am part of a third generation family owned business that has served the mining community for 55 years.
Keene Engineering is the largest supplier of small scale and portable mining equipment in the world. Our company and many other manufacturers, sells to small businesses and dealers, who provide goods to prospectors and miners throughout the United States.
On July 7, 2004, there was a notice in the Federal Register announcing Forest Service plans to clarify the language of 36CFR228.4 that will negatively impact gold prospecting -- and any other activities -- on mining claims.
By removing the word significant from "significant surface disturbance," this will allow District Rangers to make arbitrary and capricious decisions as to the activities, which may cause "any" surface disturbance.
Significant surface disturbance, by definition, meant mechanized earth-moving equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes, cutting of trees, and now they are amending the regulation to include, panning, sluicing, small hand held suction dredges and hand tools in the same category.
A suction dredge vacuums material through a suction hose and carries the material into a sluice box. The water and material flows over gravity traps to remove heavy materials such as, gold and also removes lead and mercury which are natural occurring and hazardous to the environment.
Studies have proven that suction dredging does not harm fish or any other types of aquatic species and provides beneficial habitat.
There are over 167,000 small-scale independent miners, which support the economic infrastructure of the U.S. The annual economic benefit generated by small-scale independent miners is $253,000,000 in 2001. Source: U.S. Commerce Department. The Forest Service does not believe that the Economic Impact will not have an annual economic impact of $100,000,000 or more on the economy; which is [utterly false].
This Forest Service rule violates and circumvents the Administration Procedures Act, the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), the Regulatory Flexibility Act and many other important laws that give people rights on public lands.
The new language in the 36CFR-228.4 will not allow our industry and many others who provide prospecting supplies to survive, due to extreme economic impacts, because of this new regulation.
The Forest Service also feels that it requires no congressional authority to undermine the 1872 Mining Law.
Small-scale independent miners spend a large amount of money to benefit the small towns, counties, and the State's economies. Small-scale independent miners purchase fuel, groceries and camping supplies and many other amenities. It is important for miner to exercise their rights on public lands to explore and developed potential mineral resources for our country's economy. Most small businesses, which provide prospecting supplies and services, are struggling to survive in this political climate. The Forest Service by this interim rule is trying to eliminate the small-scale independent miners and their rights to prospect on public lands.
The opinion of the Forest Service is that a miner does not have the statuary right to occupy his valid mining claim for the purpose of mining even if it is incidental to a mining operation and that he should therefore be required file a mandatory, Notice of Intent. Which of coarse would require a Plan of Operation and a Bond.
You cannot obtain a bond if no one will bond you. Suction dredging has been exempt in the past The final determination is up to the District Ranger for he or she will be free to make any determination as to what they personally feel will be significant, whether the activity would be such as panning or sluicing of gold.
These regulations could collapse the recreational mining industry. It is essential that Americans maintain their rights to mine on public lands, because of the 1872 Mining law.
Mining is what made this country what it is today.
In conclusion, the new rule in affect will not clarify anything, but leave individuals to make their own interpretations by according to their own agenda, (which could be arbitrary and capricious).
Sincerely,
Patrick Keene
Keene Engineering
20201 Bahama Street
Chatsworth, CA 91311
800-841-7833 (outside CA)
800-392-4653 (in CA)
Fax: 818-993-0447
Pat@KeeneEng.com
http://www.keeneeng.com/contact.html
Permalink 0 comments
This information was sent along by Julie Kay Smithson at www.PropertyRightsResearch.org.
The deadline for comments is September 7th.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Any faxed correspondence should have the following as a heading:
USDA-Forest Service, Minerals and Geology Management (MGM)
Staff (2810)
Mail Stop 1126
Washington, DC 20250-1125
36cfr228a@fs.fed.us
703-605-4852
Fax: 703-605-1575
Attn: Secretary Ann Veneman; Undersecretary Mark Rey; Director of Minerals and Geology Management; and Staff Member Sam Hotchkiss
Re: PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THE INTERIM RULE
In accordance with the Request for Public Comments and Notice of Interim Rule:
Federal Register Notice, Friday, July 9 2004, (69 FR 41428)(2004 WL 1530411 (F.R.)), (RIN 0596-AC17) Interim Rule, allegedly, interpreting 36 CFR § 228.4, (the "Interim Rule"), and was signed by Mark Rey.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/shastatrinity/news/2004/releases/046-aug3-mining-regulations.shtml
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/nezperce/newsreleases/mining_regulations_07_15_04.pdf
Dear Secretary Veneman, Undersecretary Rey; Mr. Hotchkiss, and Director of MGM:
August 9, 2004
My name is Patrick Keene; I am part of a third generation family owned business that has served the mining community for 55 years.
Keene Engineering is the largest supplier of small scale and portable mining equipment in the world. Our company and many other manufacturers, sells to small businesses and dealers, who provide goods to prospectors and miners throughout the United States.
On July 7, 2004, there was a notice in the Federal Register announcing Forest Service plans to clarify the language of 36CFR228.4 that will negatively impact gold prospecting -- and any other activities -- on mining claims.
By removing the word significant from "significant surface disturbance," this will allow District Rangers to make arbitrary and capricious decisions as to the activities, which may cause "any" surface disturbance.
Significant surface disturbance, by definition, meant mechanized earth-moving equipment such as bulldozers, backhoes, cutting of trees, and now they are amending the regulation to include, panning, sluicing, small hand held suction dredges and hand tools in the same category.
A suction dredge vacuums material through a suction hose and carries the material into a sluice box. The water and material flows over gravity traps to remove heavy materials such as, gold and also removes lead and mercury which are natural occurring and hazardous to the environment.
Studies have proven that suction dredging does not harm fish or any other types of aquatic species and provides beneficial habitat.
There are over 167,000 small-scale independent miners, which support the economic infrastructure of the U.S. The annual economic benefit generated by small-scale independent miners is $253,000,000 in 2001. Source: U.S. Commerce Department. The Forest Service does not believe that the Economic Impact will not have an annual economic impact of $100,000,000 or more on the economy; which is [utterly false].
This Forest Service rule violates and circumvents the Administration Procedures Act, the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), the Regulatory Flexibility Act and many other important laws that give people rights on public lands.
The new language in the 36CFR-228.4 will not allow our industry and many others who provide prospecting supplies to survive, due to extreme economic impacts, because of this new regulation.
The Forest Service also feels that it requires no congressional authority to undermine the 1872 Mining Law.
Small-scale independent miners spend a large amount of money to benefit the small towns, counties, and the State's economies. Small-scale independent miners purchase fuel, groceries and camping supplies and many other amenities. It is important for miner to exercise their rights on public lands to explore and developed potential mineral resources for our country's economy. Most small businesses, which provide prospecting supplies and services, are struggling to survive in this political climate. The Forest Service by this interim rule is trying to eliminate the small-scale independent miners and their rights to prospect on public lands.
The opinion of the Forest Service is that a miner does not have the statuary right to occupy his valid mining claim for the purpose of mining even if it is incidental to a mining operation and that he should therefore be required file a mandatory, Notice of Intent. Which of coarse would require a Plan of Operation and a Bond.
You cannot obtain a bond if no one will bond you. Suction dredging has been exempt in the past The final determination is up to the District Ranger for he or she will be free to make any determination as to what they personally feel will be significant, whether the activity would be such as panning or sluicing of gold.
These regulations could collapse the recreational mining industry. It is essential that Americans maintain their rights to mine on public lands, because of the 1872 Mining law.
Mining is what made this country what it is today.
In conclusion, the new rule in affect will not clarify anything, but leave individuals to make their own interpretations by according to their own agenda, (which could be arbitrary and capricious).
Sincerely,
Patrick Keene
Keene Engineering
20201 Bahama Street
Chatsworth, CA 91311
800-841-7833 (outside CA)
800-392-4653 (in CA)
Fax: 818-993-0447
Pat@KeeneEng.com
http://www.keeneeng.com/contact.html
Permalink 0 comments
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Oil, gas auction breaks records The federal government set a record with its June oil and gas lease auction in Utah, offering 281,000 acres of Utah lands for development as part of the Bush administration's push toward more domestic energy production. Records are made to be broken, though. The next quarterly lease auction slated for Sept. 8 easily outpaces the June sale, with 362,665 acres spread across 223 parcels. Among the leases up for purchase, all or portions of 21 of the parcels - 19,338 acres in all - contain wilderness characteristics, according to the Bureau of Land Management, inspiring howls from conservationists both inside and outside of Utah....
Judge lifts injunctions on Biscuit Fire salvage logging A federal judge has lifted injunctions that had temporarily barred salvage logging of the 2002 Biscuit Fire in southern Oregon, but the legal battle is not yet over. The Forest Service said logging in theory could start now, but environmentalists' lawyers said they would try to stop it pending an appeal. The fire, which burned across some 500,000 acres in southwestern Oregon, was the worst wildfire in the nation that summer. It has led to one of the larger timber salvage sales of modern times....
Rainbows leave a clean forest Little damage was done to forest lands used by an estimated 20,000 people who attended the Rainbow Family Gathering in July, Forest Service officials say. Edith Asrow, the Warner Mountain Ranger District's ranger, said damage caused by campers in the Modoc National Forest's Bear Camp Flat was negligible....
Bidder protests recreation contract award Spherix Inc. of Beltsville, Md., has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Agriculture Department's award to ReserveAmerica of the $128 million contract for the consolidated National Recreation Reservation System. Under the contract awarded earlier this month, ReserveAmerica of Ballston Spa, N.Y., will develop a single, interagency federal recreation information and reservation service for the Forest Service to be ready later this year. It will offer centralized shopping for more than 57,000 campgrounds, cabins, parks, and tours of national sites, historic homes and caves....
Wildfire Grows To 1,200 Acres, Rushes Close To Gas Wells Authorities shut down gas wells Monday afternoon near Mesa Verde National Park as they battle a 1,200-acre wildfire that was sparked by lightning last week. Nearly 200 firefighters are battling the wind-fed fire in southwest La Plata County. The blaze exploded from 10 acres to 1,200 acres since Sunday. It is only 20 percent contained....
Editorial Big cats: We need balance IF wildlife lovers (and who isn't) think the problems with mountain lion attacks come from people, they're right. Only it's not folks horning in on lion territory. No, it was overzealous environmentalism that convinced voters to make the magnificent cats a protected species in 1990. Because wildlife officials can no longer manage the lions, which sometimes entails killing them, lions have multiplied to the point where there are just too many cats for the habitat and food source. While there have been no definitive counts of lions in the state, other factors lead wildlife officials to conclude the lions have increased dramatically....
EarthTalk: Do urban trees really help reduce pollution and clean the air? While Olmsted's statement may have been more philosophical than scientific, researchers have since found that city trees do indeed perform important environmental functions like soaking up ground-level pollutants and storing carbon dioxide, which helps offset global warming. Each year in Chicago, for example, the windy city's urban tree canopy removes 15 metric tons of carbon monoxide, 84 metric tons of sulfur dioxide, 89 metric tons of nitrogen dioxide, 191 metric tons of ozone and 212 metric tons of particulates, according to David Nowak, project leader of the U.S. Forest Service's Urban Forest Ecosystem Research Unit....
No proof conditions improving for Klamath salmon, opponents seek compromise There is no hard evidence that conditions have improved for Klamath River salmon, but many of the people fighting over sharing scarce water between fish and farms said Monday they are tired of the battle and moving closer toward the compromises necessary to find long-term solutions. About 120 people filled the Eureka City Council chambers for a forum sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., to assess the status of salmon in the Klamath River two years after a die-off blamed on low water killed an estimated 35,000 to 70,000 fish, mostly adult chinook salmon and bring interest groups together....
Letter asks for priority on Klamath water storage Six members of the U.S. House of Representatives called on the Bush administration Friday to place a priority on developing extra water storage in the Klamath Basin and to seek external reviews of sucker fish populations. Rep. Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Committee on Resources, sent letters outlining the requests to administration officials....
Prairie dogs get new digs There’s a town being built on Bureau of Land Management property in Mesa County, and new inhabitants arrived to their desert home Saturday and Sunday. They didn’t come in moving vans or trailers. They came by pet carrier. White-tailed prairie dogs were relocated from private land to public land this past weekend by the Prairie Dog Relocation Project. The citizens group, sponsored by the Sierra Club, went through a rigorous permitting process with the state and federal government to move the prairie dogs from land where people viewed the animals as pests to federal land....
White House Expands Hunting, Fishing Lands The Bush administration said Monday it will give people who hunt and fish new access to hundreds of thousands of acres of lands and streams within 17 national wildlife refuges and wetlands. The decision as the Republican National Convention was opening in New York was announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hunting and fishing, along with observing and photographing wildlife, have long been allowed in the 95-million-acre refuge system. That includes 544 national wildlife refuges and thousands of small wetlands and other specially managed areas. Currently, more than 300 wildlife refuges and about 3,000 small wetlands are open to hunting, and more than 260 wildlife refuges are open to fishing....
NMOGA president blasts regulators, permitting process The Permian Basin and southeastern New Mexico may be “joined at the hip” geographically and geologically. But the two oil-and-gas rich regions become two distinctly different beings over the issue of governmental regulation and environmental activism, the head of a trade association says. Bob Gallagher, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, told a meeting of the area chapter of the Natural Gas Producers Association that much is happening related to oil and gas activity in New Mexico, “a lot of it good and a lot of it bad.” In New Mexico, the “bad” relates to the overwhelming amount of land owned by the federal government, which owns nearly 60 percent of the minerals, Gallagher said....
Republican landowners spout off over drilling during visit with Norton Rifle rancher Joan Savage doesn't consider herself to be an environmentalist. She's also a Republican, and confrontation was the last thing on her mind last week when she got the chance to talk to Interior Secretary Gale Norton about natural gas development in the West. Rather, Savage simply wanted to make Norton aware of concerns she and other landowners have about the industry. Savage joined a group of Republican landowners from Wyoming and New Mexico in chartering a plane and flying to Albuquerque, N.M., to speak with Norton Wednesday. And she's pleased with the reception she got....
Earth First! Then spread the carnivores Old monkeywrenchers never die, they just change tools. That's a successful strategy for Dave Foreman anyway. Foreman, a co-founder of Earth First! once known for his radical eco-terrorist approach, is now relying on science to accomplish his environmental agenda....
Seashore drilling: Ruination or salvation? Hidden from tourists' view in Padre Island National Seashore is a two-acre patch of hard-packed dirt and rock scraped from the lush sea oats and hardy shrubs that make up the island's interior. From that barren patch sprouts a metal wellhead — about 7 feet high — built to pump natural gas from the nearby Laguna Madre, a fragile super-saline bay tucked between the island and the Texas mainland. To state Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, the site is a perfect example of how industry can capitalize on the state's increasingly valuable energy resources while causing only minimal harm to the environment. To the Sierra Club, the drilling is a nightmare — the state inviting heavy industry into a national park for money....
Mr. Sandman, Bring Me Some Oil The geologists, roughnecks and recently minted M.B.A.'s being ferried north by the Suncor jet are all focused on one objective: an unconventional approach to producing oil by sucking the viscous tar out of the sandy soil around Fort McMurray, a city of 50,000 where the temperature can dip to 40 degrees below zero in the winter. Their output is already crucial to the United States' energy supply. The flow of oil extracted from Alberta's tar sands, also called oil sands, surpassed one million barrels a day at the end of 2003, and it is expected to double to two million barrels by 2010, matching the output of significant members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries like Libya and Indonesia. Much of the oil goes south across the American border....
Plaintiffs seek cattleman who hoofed it out of town Eight plaintiffs in a lawsuit are alleging rancher Tim Jacobsen and Herd Management LLC owe them $106,855.77 and 116 head of cattle from the Chirikof Island herd. In 2000, the federal government ordered the cattle removed from the island, at the south end of the Kodiak archipelago, where the unique stock have lived for more than 100 years. Jacobsen, holder of a ranching lease on Chirikof, formed Herd Management to evacuate the herd. But the remote location, severe weather and public controversy have dogged removal attempts....
Historic rancho eyed for future development The owner of what may be the last intact Mexican rancho in the state is considering developing the land, which stretches across thousands of acres east and south of Escondido. On Wednesday evening, the Pala-Pauma Sponsor Group will hear about the potential development of the historic 22,000-acre Rancho Guejito. The 22,000 acres stretch from Valley Center to the Wild Animal Park in San Pasqual Valley, and is the only completely undeveloped Mexican land grant rancho left in the state, said Bob Lerner, Valley Center History Museum historian. Lerner said there were originally 800 Mexican land grants in California but they have all seen some kind of development over the years. Rancho Guejito was given to Jose Orozco, the land's original owner, in 1845 by then-California governor Pio Pico. Rancho Guejito is still intact with the exception of a home built on the land in the 1990s, Lerner said....
It's All Trew: Early-day harvesting involved bangboard Since this was before tractors, teams and wagons hauled the grain to the barns. Most farm wagons had one to three sideboards around the bed. A bangboard was created by removing one or more of the sideboards from one side of the wagon and placing them atop the opposite sideboards, making a wall to throw the maize heads or ears of corn against while harvesting. A well-trained work team pulled the wagon alongside the men cutting and tossing. A "giddyap" moved the wagon forward and a "whoa" halted its progress. Two or more hard-working men and a good team could cover a lot of ground in a day keeping the bangboard "banging constantly."....
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Oil, gas auction breaks records The federal government set a record with its June oil and gas lease auction in Utah, offering 281,000 acres of Utah lands for development as part of the Bush administration's push toward more domestic energy production. Records are made to be broken, though. The next quarterly lease auction slated for Sept. 8 easily outpaces the June sale, with 362,665 acres spread across 223 parcels. Among the leases up for purchase, all or portions of 21 of the parcels - 19,338 acres in all - contain wilderness characteristics, according to the Bureau of Land Management, inspiring howls from conservationists both inside and outside of Utah....
Judge lifts injunctions on Biscuit Fire salvage logging A federal judge has lifted injunctions that had temporarily barred salvage logging of the 2002 Biscuit Fire in southern Oregon, but the legal battle is not yet over. The Forest Service said logging in theory could start now, but environmentalists' lawyers said they would try to stop it pending an appeal. The fire, which burned across some 500,000 acres in southwestern Oregon, was the worst wildfire in the nation that summer. It has led to one of the larger timber salvage sales of modern times....
Rainbows leave a clean forest Little damage was done to forest lands used by an estimated 20,000 people who attended the Rainbow Family Gathering in July, Forest Service officials say. Edith Asrow, the Warner Mountain Ranger District's ranger, said damage caused by campers in the Modoc National Forest's Bear Camp Flat was negligible....
Bidder protests recreation contract award Spherix Inc. of Beltsville, Md., has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the Agriculture Department's award to ReserveAmerica of the $128 million contract for the consolidated National Recreation Reservation System. Under the contract awarded earlier this month, ReserveAmerica of Ballston Spa, N.Y., will develop a single, interagency federal recreation information and reservation service for the Forest Service to be ready later this year. It will offer centralized shopping for more than 57,000 campgrounds, cabins, parks, and tours of national sites, historic homes and caves....
Wildfire Grows To 1,200 Acres, Rushes Close To Gas Wells Authorities shut down gas wells Monday afternoon near Mesa Verde National Park as they battle a 1,200-acre wildfire that was sparked by lightning last week. Nearly 200 firefighters are battling the wind-fed fire in southwest La Plata County. The blaze exploded from 10 acres to 1,200 acres since Sunday. It is only 20 percent contained....
Editorial Big cats: We need balance IF wildlife lovers (and who isn't) think the problems with mountain lion attacks come from people, they're right. Only it's not folks horning in on lion territory. No, it was overzealous environmentalism that convinced voters to make the magnificent cats a protected species in 1990. Because wildlife officials can no longer manage the lions, which sometimes entails killing them, lions have multiplied to the point where there are just too many cats for the habitat and food source. While there have been no definitive counts of lions in the state, other factors lead wildlife officials to conclude the lions have increased dramatically....
EarthTalk: Do urban trees really help reduce pollution and clean the air? While Olmsted's statement may have been more philosophical than scientific, researchers have since found that city trees do indeed perform important environmental functions like soaking up ground-level pollutants and storing carbon dioxide, which helps offset global warming. Each year in Chicago, for example, the windy city's urban tree canopy removes 15 metric tons of carbon monoxide, 84 metric tons of sulfur dioxide, 89 metric tons of nitrogen dioxide, 191 metric tons of ozone and 212 metric tons of particulates, according to David Nowak, project leader of the U.S. Forest Service's Urban Forest Ecosystem Research Unit....
No proof conditions improving for Klamath salmon, opponents seek compromise There is no hard evidence that conditions have improved for Klamath River salmon, but many of the people fighting over sharing scarce water between fish and farms said Monday they are tired of the battle and moving closer toward the compromises necessary to find long-term solutions. About 120 people filled the Eureka City Council chambers for a forum sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., to assess the status of salmon in the Klamath River two years after a die-off blamed on low water killed an estimated 35,000 to 70,000 fish, mostly adult chinook salmon and bring interest groups together....
Letter asks for priority on Klamath water storage Six members of the U.S. House of Representatives called on the Bush administration Friday to place a priority on developing extra water storage in the Klamath Basin and to seek external reviews of sucker fish populations. Rep. Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Committee on Resources, sent letters outlining the requests to administration officials....
Prairie dogs get new digs There’s a town being built on Bureau of Land Management property in Mesa County, and new inhabitants arrived to their desert home Saturday and Sunday. They didn’t come in moving vans or trailers. They came by pet carrier. White-tailed prairie dogs were relocated from private land to public land this past weekend by the Prairie Dog Relocation Project. The citizens group, sponsored by the Sierra Club, went through a rigorous permitting process with the state and federal government to move the prairie dogs from land where people viewed the animals as pests to federal land....
White House Expands Hunting, Fishing Lands The Bush administration said Monday it will give people who hunt and fish new access to hundreds of thousands of acres of lands and streams within 17 national wildlife refuges and wetlands. The decision as the Republican National Convention was opening in New York was announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hunting and fishing, along with observing and photographing wildlife, have long been allowed in the 95-million-acre refuge system. That includes 544 national wildlife refuges and thousands of small wetlands and other specially managed areas. Currently, more than 300 wildlife refuges and about 3,000 small wetlands are open to hunting, and more than 260 wildlife refuges are open to fishing....
NMOGA president blasts regulators, permitting process The Permian Basin and southeastern New Mexico may be “joined at the hip” geographically and geologically. But the two oil-and-gas rich regions become two distinctly different beings over the issue of governmental regulation and environmental activism, the head of a trade association says. Bob Gallagher, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, told a meeting of the area chapter of the Natural Gas Producers Association that much is happening related to oil and gas activity in New Mexico, “a lot of it good and a lot of it bad.” In New Mexico, the “bad” relates to the overwhelming amount of land owned by the federal government, which owns nearly 60 percent of the minerals, Gallagher said....
Republican landowners spout off over drilling during visit with Norton Rifle rancher Joan Savage doesn't consider herself to be an environmentalist. She's also a Republican, and confrontation was the last thing on her mind last week when she got the chance to talk to Interior Secretary Gale Norton about natural gas development in the West. Rather, Savage simply wanted to make Norton aware of concerns she and other landowners have about the industry. Savage joined a group of Republican landowners from Wyoming and New Mexico in chartering a plane and flying to Albuquerque, N.M., to speak with Norton Wednesday. And she's pleased with the reception she got....
Earth First! Then spread the carnivores Old monkeywrenchers never die, they just change tools. That's a successful strategy for Dave Foreman anyway. Foreman, a co-founder of Earth First! once known for his radical eco-terrorist approach, is now relying on science to accomplish his environmental agenda....
Seashore drilling: Ruination or salvation? Hidden from tourists' view in Padre Island National Seashore is a two-acre patch of hard-packed dirt and rock scraped from the lush sea oats and hardy shrubs that make up the island's interior. From that barren patch sprouts a metal wellhead — about 7 feet high — built to pump natural gas from the nearby Laguna Madre, a fragile super-saline bay tucked between the island and the Texas mainland. To state Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, the site is a perfect example of how industry can capitalize on the state's increasingly valuable energy resources while causing only minimal harm to the environment. To the Sierra Club, the drilling is a nightmare — the state inviting heavy industry into a national park for money....
Mr. Sandman, Bring Me Some Oil The geologists, roughnecks and recently minted M.B.A.'s being ferried north by the Suncor jet are all focused on one objective: an unconventional approach to producing oil by sucking the viscous tar out of the sandy soil around Fort McMurray, a city of 50,000 where the temperature can dip to 40 degrees below zero in the winter. Their output is already crucial to the United States' energy supply. The flow of oil extracted from Alberta's tar sands, also called oil sands, surpassed one million barrels a day at the end of 2003, and it is expected to double to two million barrels by 2010, matching the output of significant members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries like Libya and Indonesia. Much of the oil goes south across the American border....
Plaintiffs seek cattleman who hoofed it out of town Eight plaintiffs in a lawsuit are alleging rancher Tim Jacobsen and Herd Management LLC owe them $106,855.77 and 116 head of cattle from the Chirikof Island herd. In 2000, the federal government ordered the cattle removed from the island, at the south end of the Kodiak archipelago, where the unique stock have lived for more than 100 years. Jacobsen, holder of a ranching lease on Chirikof, formed Herd Management to evacuate the herd. But the remote location, severe weather and public controversy have dogged removal attempts....
Historic rancho eyed for future development The owner of what may be the last intact Mexican rancho in the state is considering developing the land, which stretches across thousands of acres east and south of Escondido. On Wednesday evening, the Pala-Pauma Sponsor Group will hear about the potential development of the historic 22,000-acre Rancho Guejito. The 22,000 acres stretch from Valley Center to the Wild Animal Park in San Pasqual Valley, and is the only completely undeveloped Mexican land grant rancho left in the state, said Bob Lerner, Valley Center History Museum historian. Lerner said there were originally 800 Mexican land grants in California but they have all seen some kind of development over the years. Rancho Guejito was given to Jose Orozco, the land's original owner, in 1845 by then-California governor Pio Pico. Rancho Guejito is still intact with the exception of a home built on the land in the 1990s, Lerner said....
It's All Trew: Early-day harvesting involved bangboard Since this was before tractors, teams and wagons hauled the grain to the barns. Most farm wagons had one to three sideboards around the bed. A bangboard was created by removing one or more of the sideboards from one side of the wagon and placing them atop the opposite sideboards, making a wall to throw the maize heads or ears of corn against while harvesting. A well-trained work team pulled the wagon alongside the men cutting and tossing. A "giddyap" moved the wagon forward and a "whoa" halted its progress. Two or more hard-working men and a good team could cover a lot of ground in a day keeping the bangboard "banging constantly."....
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Monday, August 30, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Future of rural areas in doubt with decline in population When a delegation of dignitaries from Washington, D.C. rolled into this remote corner of north-central Oregon recently to deliver a big check for economic development, the people of Gilliam County pulled out all the stops. A tent was erected against a backdrop of wheat fields along a rural stretch of highway, an array of bread made from homegrown wheat was available for the eating, and the county's movers and shakers came out in force for the photo op, including Gilliam County Judge Laura Pryor, who leaned her forearms on the makeshift podium, and told the visitors just what was what. "You are in a frontier county of about 1,900 people," Pryor began....
Swanky's in, crunchy out at green fund-raiser Political fund-raisers sponsored by Oregon environmentalists are typically beer and Birkenstock affairs. But on Monday evening, the state's conservation community will throw a $200-a-head party in Portland's Pearl District. The goal is to raise money to defeat President Bush. The celebrity guest list includes Democrat Howard Dean, singer Emmylou Harris and members of the band Pink Martini....
Battle renews on use of national forests Deep in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, a few cows meandered past the odd natural gas well, pausing at times in a meadow to take in the whirring of the drill pump and its chemical-smelling odors. About 60 miles to the west, in Idaho, a cattle herd grazed in a green valley where cutthroat trout swim in a clear creek--in the shadow of a bald hillside mined for phosphate in Caribou-Targhee National Forest. "Something sure doesn't fit in this picture," said Monte Clemon, a ranch manager surveying the clash of man and nature from a ridgeline across from the phosphate mine....
Editorial: Laws hamper mine cleanups The Blackfoot River in Montana set the scene for Norman Maclean's ode to fly-fishing, "A River Runs Through It." But the iconic Western river became so fouled by a century's worth of toxic mine wastes that in recent decades, fish couldn't live in it - Robert Redford had to use a different stream to film his 1992 movie of Maclean's book. The Blackfoot's fate symbolizes how heavy metals and killer chemicals from abandoned 19th-century mines still harm Western streams: A half-million abandoned hard rock mines pollute some 16,000 miles, or 40 percent, of the West's waters. Colorado alone has 22,000 such sites oozing toxics into what should be pristine high-country creeks and rivers. The engineering know-how to clean up the mine waste certainly exists, but laws designed to make polluters pay for fixing their messes have, ironically, discouraged anyone from solving the problem....
Column, Riding roughshod: Off-road vehicles in national forests In July, the U.S. Forest Service proposed new rules concerning use of all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles on America's National Forests and Grasslands. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has identified unmanaged off-road vehicle use as one of the greatest threats to national forests and issued an urgent call to action. While a welcome first step, the draft rules fall far short of what is needed to respond to this growing crisis and fail to reflect the urgency highlighted by Chief Bosworth. My beliefs are based on a 34-year career at all levels of the Forest Service, most recently as deputy chief. I have seen pervasive and conflicted off-road vehicle issues in all parts of the country. Though now retired, I welcome Chief Bosworth's initiative, but half-measures will not suffice....
Prairie chickens given safe haven New Mexico’s rare lesser prairie chickens just got 12,000 acres safer. The New Mexico Nature Conservancy recently acquired the Pearce and Creamer ranches in southeast New Mexico in the hopes of preserving the natural habitat of the nearly endangered species. The Creamer Ranch has one of the densest populations of lesser prairie chickens in the world, according to Bob Findling, director of conservation projects for the New Mexico chapter of the Nature Conservancy....
Association pushes to complete final 107 miles 107 miles. That's all that's left to complete the Arizona Trail. What will it take to get those last sections of the map filled in? "Money and manpower. Awareness and understanding of what the trail is," said Larry Snead, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association. "Our goal is to have the trail completely built in five years."....
Shocking setback: Red wolf's death deals blow to repopulation plan The mother wolf’s eyes widened with fear as she struggled to free herself from the people who had pinned her to the ground. Moving quickly, the scientists stuck a medicine-filled needle into the wolf’s flank and attached a radio-tracking collar to her neck. It was a routine, typically harmless procedure to prepare endangered red wolves for reintroduction to the wild. But hours after her capture, the wolf died, leaving two 4-month-old pups without a mom.....
Lights, shells keep wolves from attacking cattle Bright lights and firecracker-like blasts are deterring wolves from attacking cattle in Grand Teton National Park, officials said. Ranchers have not reported any depredations since wolves from the Teton Pack killed a 400-pound calf Aug. 10 in the park, said Mike Jimenez, the federal wolf recovery project leader for Wyoming. The attack was the first recorded in the park since the wolf pack took up residence at Grand Teton in 1999....
White House Memo Fuels Debate on Whether Parks, Politics Mix Politicians wanting to make appearances in national parks and other federally owned and operated places could begin finding their access limited. An advisory from the White House Office of Special Counsel issued this month to federal employees warned that "the Hatch Act should be considered carefully when handling a candidate's request to visit or use a federal building. We strongly encourage all federal agencies receiving such requests to contact OSC prior to granting such a request."....
Pollutants raining down on Rockies Airborne pollutants from Front Range tailpipes, smokestacks, crop fields and feedlots are damaging the prized mountaintop ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park. If unchecked, the creeping accumulation of urban nitrogen compounds could acidify park waters and soils, posing a threat to fish, forests and vast expanses of rolling alpine tundra, National Park Service air-quality officials have concluded after reviewing more than 20 years of research....
Rescues costing Parks cash Wild-animal attacks and mountain-climbing accidents command the biggest headlines, but search-and-rescue teams are called out most often to help lost or injured hikers in America's national parks. The National Park Service reports spending $3.5 million last year on 3,108 search-and-rescue operations -- 1,264 of them to assist hikers....
Stop! And Be Sniffed The girl in the summer skirt who wants to see the Statue of Liberty seems not to hear the female park officer when the officer says, "Honey, do me a big favor and hold down your skirt." The girl then saunters into a security portal that looks like something out of Star Trek. A robot voice warns, "Air puffers on!" Aghast, the girl clamps her arms to her sides. The edges of her skirt poof up slightly, as jets of air buffet the girl and dislodge microscopic particles from her. The portal, a miniature chemical laboratory, sifts the particles for traces of a bomb. At last, the puffers wheeze shut. The robot voice advises, "Wait for green light!"....
Editorial: Backward policy on snowmobiles For most people, a winter trip to Yellowstone National Park is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A highlight should be nature's sounds: the rumble of Old Faithful, the wind in the pines and wildlife calls. Instead, snowmobile noise is so common that in some locations there is no time of day when visitors don't hear the machines, said a National Park Service study released this month. The report warned that visitors may "choose to wear" hearing protection and said that toxic air pollutants remain a concern. In the face of this damning evidence against snowmobiling in Yellowstone, the Bush administration bizarrely wants to continue to let the machines roar into America's first national park....
No charges will be filed against target shooter in wildfire No charges will be filed against a target shooter who admitted starting a wildfire that destroyed six houses south of Reno last week, investigators said. Armand Otis of Washoe Valley was shooting with two friends on Wednesday when a rifle bullet ricocheted off a rock, sparking a 2,744-acre blaze....
Basque sheepherders carved mark on aspen trees However, for the Basque sheepherders, it was a way to pass time and mark territory. The Basque arrived in northern Arizona after a number of them traveled from South America to California for the San Francisco gold rush in the 1800s. The Basque men joined many others in not striking it rich, so they turned to a commerce that had a long tie to their history: shepherding. In the 1870s, the Basque migrated east when a drought crippled the West Coast. The Basque came to places such as Arizona, which were not as affected....
In rural California county, concealed guns go with the territory Patricia Cantrall, nicknamed the "Annie Oakley of Modoc County," straps her .38 backward on her left hip. "I prefer the cross draw," said the 65-year-old county supervisor and part-time cafe waitress. Cantrall and about 270 fellow residents of this sparsely populated corner of northeastern California routinely carry concealed handguns. When it comes to packing heat, at least legally, no other county in California surpasses Modoc. According to state Department of Justice statistics, about one in 29 county residents has a concealed-weapons permit. That compares with one in 800 residents for the rest of the state....
Stealing the show John Payne extends his left arm enthusiastically for a handshake. He lost the right one three decades ago. But that doesn't stop this Oklahoma cowboy from trick riding while cracking a whip and chasing three buffalo around a rodeo arena. Payne -- known as the One Arm Bandit -- earns a standing ovation almost everywhere he goes in the country by riding a Nevada mustang without holding the reins while herding the ornery buffalo up a ramp to the top of his stock trailer....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Sometimes a bad habit can come back Early in Dr. Charlie's veterinary career he assumed the veterinary care of a dairy run by a cloistered order of nuns. It became his charity work. Because of their rules, only two of the sisters were allowed to talk to him. They wore Army fatigue combat boots and a pink habit head dressing. Sister Mary, a bright, but serious grandmotherly woman, was his liaison. One afternoon he was called to the dairy to examine a dead cow. She appeared to have bloated but Dr. Charles, as Sister Mary called him, thought a necropsy was appropriate....
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Future of rural areas in doubt with decline in population When a delegation of dignitaries from Washington, D.C. rolled into this remote corner of north-central Oregon recently to deliver a big check for economic development, the people of Gilliam County pulled out all the stops. A tent was erected against a backdrop of wheat fields along a rural stretch of highway, an array of bread made from homegrown wheat was available for the eating, and the county's movers and shakers came out in force for the photo op, including Gilliam County Judge Laura Pryor, who leaned her forearms on the makeshift podium, and told the visitors just what was what. "You are in a frontier county of about 1,900 people," Pryor began....
Swanky's in, crunchy out at green fund-raiser Political fund-raisers sponsored by Oregon environmentalists are typically beer and Birkenstock affairs. But on Monday evening, the state's conservation community will throw a $200-a-head party in Portland's Pearl District. The goal is to raise money to defeat President Bush. The celebrity guest list includes Democrat Howard Dean, singer Emmylou Harris and members of the band Pink Martini....
Battle renews on use of national forests Deep in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, a few cows meandered past the odd natural gas well, pausing at times in a meadow to take in the whirring of the drill pump and its chemical-smelling odors. About 60 miles to the west, in Idaho, a cattle herd grazed in a green valley where cutthroat trout swim in a clear creek--in the shadow of a bald hillside mined for phosphate in Caribou-Targhee National Forest. "Something sure doesn't fit in this picture," said Monte Clemon, a ranch manager surveying the clash of man and nature from a ridgeline across from the phosphate mine....
Editorial: Laws hamper mine cleanups The Blackfoot River in Montana set the scene for Norman Maclean's ode to fly-fishing, "A River Runs Through It." But the iconic Western river became so fouled by a century's worth of toxic mine wastes that in recent decades, fish couldn't live in it - Robert Redford had to use a different stream to film his 1992 movie of Maclean's book. The Blackfoot's fate symbolizes how heavy metals and killer chemicals from abandoned 19th-century mines still harm Western streams: A half-million abandoned hard rock mines pollute some 16,000 miles, or 40 percent, of the West's waters. Colorado alone has 22,000 such sites oozing toxics into what should be pristine high-country creeks and rivers. The engineering know-how to clean up the mine waste certainly exists, but laws designed to make polluters pay for fixing their messes have, ironically, discouraged anyone from solving the problem....
Column, Riding roughshod: Off-road vehicles in national forests In July, the U.S. Forest Service proposed new rules concerning use of all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles on America's National Forests and Grasslands. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has identified unmanaged off-road vehicle use as one of the greatest threats to national forests and issued an urgent call to action. While a welcome first step, the draft rules fall far short of what is needed to respond to this growing crisis and fail to reflect the urgency highlighted by Chief Bosworth. My beliefs are based on a 34-year career at all levels of the Forest Service, most recently as deputy chief. I have seen pervasive and conflicted off-road vehicle issues in all parts of the country. Though now retired, I welcome Chief Bosworth's initiative, but half-measures will not suffice....
Prairie chickens given safe haven New Mexico’s rare lesser prairie chickens just got 12,000 acres safer. The New Mexico Nature Conservancy recently acquired the Pearce and Creamer ranches in southeast New Mexico in the hopes of preserving the natural habitat of the nearly endangered species. The Creamer Ranch has one of the densest populations of lesser prairie chickens in the world, according to Bob Findling, director of conservation projects for the New Mexico chapter of the Nature Conservancy....
Association pushes to complete final 107 miles 107 miles. That's all that's left to complete the Arizona Trail. What will it take to get those last sections of the map filled in? "Money and manpower. Awareness and understanding of what the trail is," said Larry Snead, executive director of the Arizona Trail Association. "Our goal is to have the trail completely built in five years."....
Shocking setback: Red wolf's death deals blow to repopulation plan The mother wolf’s eyes widened with fear as she struggled to free herself from the people who had pinned her to the ground. Moving quickly, the scientists stuck a medicine-filled needle into the wolf’s flank and attached a radio-tracking collar to her neck. It was a routine, typically harmless procedure to prepare endangered red wolves for reintroduction to the wild. But hours after her capture, the wolf died, leaving two 4-month-old pups without a mom.....
Lights, shells keep wolves from attacking cattle Bright lights and firecracker-like blasts are deterring wolves from attacking cattle in Grand Teton National Park, officials said. Ranchers have not reported any depredations since wolves from the Teton Pack killed a 400-pound calf Aug. 10 in the park, said Mike Jimenez, the federal wolf recovery project leader for Wyoming. The attack was the first recorded in the park since the wolf pack took up residence at Grand Teton in 1999....
White House Memo Fuels Debate on Whether Parks, Politics Mix Politicians wanting to make appearances in national parks and other federally owned and operated places could begin finding their access limited. An advisory from the White House Office of Special Counsel issued this month to federal employees warned that "the Hatch Act should be considered carefully when handling a candidate's request to visit or use a federal building. We strongly encourage all federal agencies receiving such requests to contact OSC prior to granting such a request."....
Pollutants raining down on Rockies Airborne pollutants from Front Range tailpipes, smokestacks, crop fields and feedlots are damaging the prized mountaintop ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park. If unchecked, the creeping accumulation of urban nitrogen compounds could acidify park waters and soils, posing a threat to fish, forests and vast expanses of rolling alpine tundra, National Park Service air-quality officials have concluded after reviewing more than 20 years of research....
Rescues costing Parks cash Wild-animal attacks and mountain-climbing accidents command the biggest headlines, but search-and-rescue teams are called out most often to help lost or injured hikers in America's national parks. The National Park Service reports spending $3.5 million last year on 3,108 search-and-rescue operations -- 1,264 of them to assist hikers....
Stop! And Be Sniffed The girl in the summer skirt who wants to see the Statue of Liberty seems not to hear the female park officer when the officer says, "Honey, do me a big favor and hold down your skirt." The girl then saunters into a security portal that looks like something out of Star Trek. A robot voice warns, "Air puffers on!" Aghast, the girl clamps her arms to her sides. The edges of her skirt poof up slightly, as jets of air buffet the girl and dislodge microscopic particles from her. The portal, a miniature chemical laboratory, sifts the particles for traces of a bomb. At last, the puffers wheeze shut. The robot voice advises, "Wait for green light!"....
Editorial: Backward policy on snowmobiles For most people, a winter trip to Yellowstone National Park is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A highlight should be nature's sounds: the rumble of Old Faithful, the wind in the pines and wildlife calls. Instead, snowmobile noise is so common that in some locations there is no time of day when visitors don't hear the machines, said a National Park Service study released this month. The report warned that visitors may "choose to wear" hearing protection and said that toxic air pollutants remain a concern. In the face of this damning evidence against snowmobiling in Yellowstone, the Bush administration bizarrely wants to continue to let the machines roar into America's first national park....
No charges will be filed against target shooter in wildfire No charges will be filed against a target shooter who admitted starting a wildfire that destroyed six houses south of Reno last week, investigators said. Armand Otis of Washoe Valley was shooting with two friends on Wednesday when a rifle bullet ricocheted off a rock, sparking a 2,744-acre blaze....
Basque sheepherders carved mark on aspen trees However, for the Basque sheepherders, it was a way to pass time and mark territory. The Basque arrived in northern Arizona after a number of them traveled from South America to California for the San Francisco gold rush in the 1800s. The Basque men joined many others in not striking it rich, so they turned to a commerce that had a long tie to their history: shepherding. In the 1870s, the Basque migrated east when a drought crippled the West Coast. The Basque came to places such as Arizona, which were not as affected....
In rural California county, concealed guns go with the territory Patricia Cantrall, nicknamed the "Annie Oakley of Modoc County," straps her .38 backward on her left hip. "I prefer the cross draw," said the 65-year-old county supervisor and part-time cafe waitress. Cantrall and about 270 fellow residents of this sparsely populated corner of northeastern California routinely carry concealed handguns. When it comes to packing heat, at least legally, no other county in California surpasses Modoc. According to state Department of Justice statistics, about one in 29 county residents has a concealed-weapons permit. That compares with one in 800 residents for the rest of the state....
Stealing the show John Payne extends his left arm enthusiastically for a handshake. He lost the right one three decades ago. But that doesn't stop this Oklahoma cowboy from trick riding while cracking a whip and chasing three buffalo around a rodeo arena. Payne -- known as the One Arm Bandit -- earns a standing ovation almost everywhere he goes in the country by riding a Nevada mustang without holding the reins while herding the ornery buffalo up a ramp to the top of his stock trailer....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Sometimes a bad habit can come back Early in Dr. Charlie's veterinary career he assumed the veterinary care of a dairy run by a cloistered order of nuns. It became his charity work. Because of their rules, only two of the sisters were allowed to talk to him. They wore Army fatigue combat boots and a pink habit head dressing. Sister Mary, a bright, but serious grandmotherly woman, was his liaison. One afternoon he was called to the dairy to examine a dead cow. She appeared to have bloated but Dr. Charles, as Sister Mary called him, thought a necropsy was appropriate....
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Sunday, August 29, 2004
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Land Acquisition Group Caught Misusing Taxpayer Money According to the Los Angeles Times on June 6, California Department of Finance auditors issued a report on March 24 documenting that the conservancy group "does not adequately manage, control, or oversee" $115 million in bond funds given it by the state. The auditors accused the organization of "funneling away money to pay for legal fees, office expenses, conferences, cars, travel, vacation and sick pay, and 'excessive' overhead charges." "In our opinion, they're not spending funds in line with the bond measures," said Office of State Audits and Evaluations chief Samuel Hull. "Some of the things they did I've never seen before. They are creative, I'll give them that." According to the audit, the conservancy assesses an extremely high 9 percent "administrative overhead" fee for its land purchases, which has amounted to more than $1.5 million. The auditors report the conservancy's administrative overhead assessments are a staggering 350 times greater than the overhead of comparable state agencies such as the Coastal Conservancy and the state Department of Fish and Game. Such fees, according to the auditors, are "grossly out of proportion to services provided." Specific expenditures cited by the auditors as inappropriate include memberships in VIP airline clubs, hotel room service expenses in excess of state travel allowances, and air travel purchases for the wife of the conservancy's executive director....
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Land Acquisition Group Caught Misusing Taxpayer Money According to the Los Angeles Times on June 6, California Department of Finance auditors issued a report on March 24 documenting that the conservancy group "does not adequately manage, control, or oversee" $115 million in bond funds given it by the state. The auditors accused the organization of "funneling away money to pay for legal fees, office expenses, conferences, cars, travel, vacation and sick pay, and 'excessive' overhead charges." "In our opinion, they're not spending funds in line with the bond measures," said Office of State Audits and Evaluations chief Samuel Hull. "Some of the things they did I've never seen before. They are creative, I'll give them that." According to the audit, the conservancy assesses an extremely high 9 percent "administrative overhead" fee for its land purchases, which has amounted to more than $1.5 million. The auditors report the conservancy's administrative overhead assessments are a staggering 350 times greater than the overhead of comparable state agencies such as the Coastal Conservancy and the state Department of Fish and Game. Such fees, according to the auditors, are "grossly out of proportion to services provided." Specific expenditures cited by the auditors as inappropriate include memberships in VIP airline clubs, hotel room service expenses in excess of state travel allowances, and air travel purchases for the wife of the conservancy's executive director....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Animal Rights and Wrongs Do animals have rights? Are animals capable of rational choice? Is it right to equate animals and their feelings with those of human beings? Roger Scruton, academic philosopher and author of The Meaning of Conservatism (1980), probes these questions and more like them in Animal Rights and Wrongs. In delving into such issues, Scruton critiques leftist ideas about animal rights and environmentalism, and challenges contemporary assumptions about man's relationship with animals and nature. Scruton also examines hunting, an issue that many in Scruton's native Britain feel strongly about on both ends of the spectrum. "Hunting and meat production…has awakened the defenders of animal rights," he writes.....
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Animal Rights and Wrongs Do animals have rights? Are animals capable of rational choice? Is it right to equate animals and their feelings with those of human beings? Roger Scruton, academic philosopher and author of The Meaning of Conservatism (1980), probes these questions and more like them in Animal Rights and Wrongs. In delving into such issues, Scruton critiques leftist ideas about animal rights and environmentalism, and challenges contemporary assumptions about man's relationship with animals and nature. Scruton also examines hunting, an issue that many in Scruton's native Britain feel strongly about on both ends of the spectrum. "Hunting and meat production…has awakened the defenders of animal rights," he writes.....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution In this provocative and meticulously researched book, Henry Miller and Gregory Conko trace the origins of gene-splicing, its applications, and the backlash from consumer groups and government agencies against so-called “Frankenfoods”—from America to Zimbabwe. They explain how a “happy conspiracy” of anti-technology activism, bureaucratic overreach, and industry maneuvering has resulted in a regulatory framework that squanders advances in biotechnology and denies farmers and consumers in the U.S. and abroad the benefits of this safe and environmentally beneficial tool. The authors go on to suggest a way to emerge from this morass, which stems in no small part from a cynical lobbying strategy by the very biotechnology companies that now find themselves so heavily regulated and frequently attacked. They propose a variety of business and policy reforms that can unlock the potential of this cutting-edge science, while ensuring appropriate safeguards and moving environmentally friendly products into the hands of farmers and consumers....
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The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution In this provocative and meticulously researched book, Henry Miller and Gregory Conko trace the origins of gene-splicing, its applications, and the backlash from consumer groups and government agencies against so-called “Frankenfoods”—from America to Zimbabwe. They explain how a “happy conspiracy” of anti-technology activism, bureaucratic overreach, and industry maneuvering has resulted in a regulatory framework that squanders advances in biotechnology and denies farmers and consumers in the U.S. and abroad the benefits of this safe and environmentally beneficial tool. The authors go on to suggest a way to emerge from this morass, which stems in no small part from a cynical lobbying strategy by the very biotechnology companies that now find themselves so heavily regulated and frequently attacked. They propose a variety of business and policy reforms that can unlock the potential of this cutting-edge science, while ensuring appropriate safeguards and moving environmentally friendly products into the hands of farmers and consumers....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Here comes the U.N. – again! Few people know that back in 1970, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched an ambitious program to establish a global network of "Biosphere Reserves." This program, called "Man and the Biosphere," or MAB, is not the result of a U.N. treaty; it is simply an agreement among participating nations to manage designated land masses according to principles and strategies dictated by a UNESCO committee. In the United States, 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves were designated without the approval of Congress or of any state legislature. While UNESCO continues to expand the global network of 440 reserves in 97 countries, the last three areas to be designated in the U.S. were blocked by local opposition. Proponents of this program were disappointed, but not dissuaded. Here they come again....
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Here comes the U.N. – again! Few people know that back in 1970, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched an ambitious program to establish a global network of "Biosphere Reserves." This program, called "Man and the Biosphere," or MAB, is not the result of a U.N. treaty; it is simply an agreement among participating nations to manage designated land masses according to principles and strategies dictated by a UNESCO committee. In the United States, 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves were designated without the approval of Congress or of any state legislature. While UNESCO continues to expand the global network of 440 reserves in 97 countries, the last three areas to be designated in the U.S. were blocked by local opposition. Proponents of this program were disappointed, but not dissuaded. Here they come again....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
The Mummy Speaks Ancient remains preserved intentionally or accidentally tell much about past human diseases caused by indoor air pollution from poor quality energy supplies and equipment. Yet today in sub-Saharan Africa and regions of Asia more than 90 percent of households lack electricity and must rely on hazardously burning coal, wood, vegetation or dried animal dung in open hearths or poorly ventilated stoves for their cooking and heating needs. Daily, thousands of Africans and Asians die as a result of that energy poverty. The irritating particles released by the unvented and unfiltered indoor biofuel burning lodge in the lungs and trigger pulmonary disease. Globally, such indoor air pollution causes 36 percent of lower respiratory infection and 22 percent of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the World Health Report 2003, Shaping the Future....
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The Mummy Speaks Ancient remains preserved intentionally or accidentally tell much about past human diseases caused by indoor air pollution from poor quality energy supplies and equipment. Yet today in sub-Saharan Africa and regions of Asia more than 90 percent of households lack electricity and must rely on hazardously burning coal, wood, vegetation or dried animal dung in open hearths or poorly ventilated stoves for their cooking and heating needs. Daily, thousands of Africans and Asians die as a result of that energy poverty. The irritating particles released by the unvented and unfiltered indoor biofuel burning lodge in the lungs and trigger pulmonary disease. Globally, such indoor air pollution causes 36 percent of lower respiratory infection and 22 percent of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the World Health Report 2003, Shaping the Future....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Fear Factor Environmental activists seeking to halt the worldwide spread of the advanced technologies they fear see China as an important battleground. Predictably, Greenpeace is leading the charge against China's adoption of such technologies. In 2001, for example, the group ran a loud campaign demanding that the European Union not lend any money to help finance any Chinese nuclear power projects. Today, Greenpeace has China's acceptance of biotechnology in its crosshairs. Frontal assaults on Chinese ambitions to modernize could easily boomerang on Western NGOs like Greenpeace....
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Fear Factor Environmental activists seeking to halt the worldwide spread of the advanced technologies they fear see China as an important battleground. Predictably, Greenpeace is leading the charge against China's adoption of such technologies. In 2001, for example, the group ran a loud campaign demanding that the European Union not lend any money to help finance any Chinese nuclear power projects. Today, Greenpeace has China's acceptance of biotechnology in its crosshairs. Frontal assaults on Chinese ambitions to modernize could easily boomerang on Western NGOs like Greenpeace....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Home-Grown Animal-Rights Militant Banned From UK The British Home Secretary, acting on Center for Consumer Freedom research and investigative reporting from a top London newspaper, has banned animal-rights extremist Jerry Vlasak from entering the United Kingdom. On May 20, we sent a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), whose subcommittee was investigating the very real danger posed to America by violent animal-liberation militants. Included in our letter -- which the Senator read aloud to the entire committee -- was a chilling quote from Vlasak advocating the murder of researchers whose work requires the use of animals. Billed as a speaker for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM is a quasi-medical group affiliated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Vlasak told the national "Animal Rights 2003" conference: "I don't think you'd have to kill -- assassinate -- too many ... I think for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives."....
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Home-Grown Animal-Rights Militant Banned From UK The British Home Secretary, acting on Center for Consumer Freedom research and investigative reporting from a top London newspaper, has banned animal-rights extremist Jerry Vlasak from entering the United Kingdom. On May 20, we sent a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), whose subcommittee was investigating the very real danger posed to America by violent animal-liberation militants. Included in our letter -- which the Senator read aloud to the entire committee -- was a chilling quote from Vlasak advocating the murder of researchers whose work requires the use of animals. Billed as a speaker for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM is a quasi-medical group affiliated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Vlasak told the national "Animal Rights 2003" conference: "I don't think you'd have to kill -- assassinate -- too many ... I think for 5 lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives."....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Beware the Agrarian Utopians The Hameau is a timber and thatch metaphor for what's now called "agrarian utopianism." Its devotees look back with longing on the time when people lived in tiny villages, and virtually everybody was somehow involved in farming. They believe the world would somehow be a better place if we all just hooked a plow to a pair of oxen and eked out a living on a few acres of soil. The most famous current agrarian utopian is another monarch, Prince Charles of Britain. While Marie Antoinette played a milkmaid, Charles plays a farmer. He has his own plot of organically-grown fruits and vegetables that he pays someone else to oversee. Like Marie Antoinette, he can go there whenever he likes, do what he pleases, and then take off his designer boots and become again a pampered prince. His farm is not his livelihood; it's a game. Yet this is how he perceives agriculture. Like all agrarian utopians, Charles views the past through thick lenses of nostalgia, sentimentality, and romanticism. He has no worry that his family will starve if insects or weeds ruin his crops....
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Beware the Agrarian Utopians The Hameau is a timber and thatch metaphor for what's now called "agrarian utopianism." Its devotees look back with longing on the time when people lived in tiny villages, and virtually everybody was somehow involved in farming. They believe the world would somehow be a better place if we all just hooked a plow to a pair of oxen and eked out a living on a few acres of soil. The most famous current agrarian utopian is another monarch, Prince Charles of Britain. While Marie Antoinette played a milkmaid, Charles plays a farmer. He has his own plot of organically-grown fruits and vegetables that he pays someone else to oversee. Like Marie Antoinette, he can go there whenever he likes, do what he pleases, and then take off his designer boots and become again a pampered prince. His farm is not his livelihood; it's a game. Yet this is how he perceives agriculture. Like all agrarian utopians, Charles views the past through thick lenses of nostalgia, sentimentality, and romanticism. He has no worry that his family will starve if insects or weeds ruin his crops....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Wasting a Good Solution Our country has a problem. And we have a solution. But politics is threatening to interfere. The problem: Tens of thousands of tons of dangerous nuclear waste are stored at more than 125 sites around the nation. The solution: Bury the waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Yucca would become a giant underground repository. It’s designed to contain nuclear waste for 10,000 years -- long enough for it to decay to safe levels. At Yucca, our waste would be stored safely underneath 1,000 feet of solid rock. Now comes the politics. “One of the biggest environmental and security challenges facing Nevadans is the threat that Yucca Mountain will be turned into the nation’s nuclear waste dump,” John Kerry warned during a recent campaign stop in the state....
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Wasting a Good Solution Our country has a problem. And we have a solution. But politics is threatening to interfere. The problem: Tens of thousands of tons of dangerous nuclear waste are stored at more than 125 sites around the nation. The solution: Bury the waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Yucca would become a giant underground repository. It’s designed to contain nuclear waste for 10,000 years -- long enough for it to decay to safe levels. At Yucca, our waste would be stored safely underneath 1,000 feet of solid rock. Now comes the politics. “One of the biggest environmental and security challenges facing Nevadans is the threat that Yucca Mountain will be turned into the nation’s nuclear waste dump,” John Kerry warned during a recent campaign stop in the state....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Energy Independence? Kerry's Dreaming A curious thing is happening out there in the heartland as Senator Kerry crisscrosses swing-state after swing-state in his race for the presidency. While the crowds have been politely enthusiastic over his health care plan, his pledge to close the deficit, his ideas to staunch the flow (actually, the trickle) of jobs going overseas, and over his murky riffs on Iraq or the war on terror, roars of approval are routinely going up whenever Kerry thunders about the need for energy independence so that "we're never again beholden to the House of Saud for our economic well-being." Democratic pollsters are giddy and think they've struck pay dirt. Economists are appalled and think they've struck fools gold. While energy independence is not a new idea - it's been embraced to varying degrees by every single national politician (including President Bush!) over the last 30 years - it's the sort of thing that sounds good at first blush but looks ridiculous the more you think about it....
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Energy Independence? Kerry's Dreaming A curious thing is happening out there in the heartland as Senator Kerry crisscrosses swing-state after swing-state in his race for the presidency. While the crowds have been politely enthusiastic over his health care plan, his pledge to close the deficit, his ideas to staunch the flow (actually, the trickle) of jobs going overseas, and over his murky riffs on Iraq or the war on terror, roars of approval are routinely going up whenever Kerry thunders about the need for energy independence so that "we're never again beholden to the House of Saud for our economic well-being." Democratic pollsters are giddy and think they've struck pay dirt. Economists are appalled and think they've struck fools gold. While energy independence is not a new idea - it's been embraced to varying degrees by every single national politician (including President Bush!) over the last 30 years - it's the sort of thing that sounds good at first blush but looks ridiculous the more you think about it....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
The Trouble with Oil SO NOW WE KNOW. If the demand for oil grows at a surprising rate, and the supply is constrained, the price will rise. Add myriad threats of supply disruption, an infrastructure which has been starved for capital and environmental permits for a decade, and a producer cartel, and you get increases that are sharp and enduring. Anyone who missed that lesson in his elementary economics course will certainly have learned it from the business press in recent months. Unfortunately, concentration on daily price movements diverts attention from the more threatening changes taking place in oil markets. Most important is the realization by consuming countries that the internal political dynamics of their producer-suppliers trumps the needs of customers every time. Consider three of the world's largest producers, sitting on some 40 percent of the world's reserves: Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Vladimir Putin is unconcerned about the price effects of his assault on Yukos, Russia's largest and most efficient producer. He feels it imperative to eliminate Yukos' principal shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as a political rival, and to transfer Yukos' major production properties to a company controlled by his former KGB buddies....
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The Trouble with Oil SO NOW WE KNOW. If the demand for oil grows at a surprising rate, and the supply is constrained, the price will rise. Add myriad threats of supply disruption, an infrastructure which has been starved for capital and environmental permits for a decade, and a producer cartel, and you get increases that are sharp and enduring. Anyone who missed that lesson in his elementary economics course will certainly have learned it from the business press in recent months. Unfortunately, concentration on daily price movements diverts attention from the more threatening changes taking place in oil markets. Most important is the realization by consuming countries that the internal political dynamics of their producer-suppliers trumps the needs of customers every time. Consider three of the world's largest producers, sitting on some 40 percent of the world's reserves: Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Vladimir Putin is unconcerned about the price effects of his assault on Yukos, Russia's largest and most efficient producer. He feels it imperative to eliminate Yukos' principal shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as a political rival, and to transfer Yukos' major production properties to a company controlled by his former KGB buddies....
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