Saturday, October 30, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
The Finish Line in Sight for Landmark Hage v. U.S. - Closing Arguments Heard in Takings Case for Nevada Rancher It’s been nearly fourteen years since Nevada rancher, Wayne Hage and his late wife, Jean, filed their takings case against the United States. On Thursday, October 21, 2004, ranchers from at least five states crowded into the small courtroom and spilled out into the hallway to hear the closing arguments in this landmark case being heard by Judge Loren Smith of the U.S. Federal Claims Court. Wayne Hage is no stranger to the courts. From the time Hage purchased Pine Creek Ranch in 1978 until he filed the takings case in 1991, Hage spent countless hours fighting the BLM and the Forest Service over his water and grazing rights. The mission of the government agencies was clearly to reclaim the use of the federal lands that Hage had permits on, by whatever means necessary, including fencing off Hage’s springs and the eventual confiscation of his cattle....
Lawyers for Brokaw say hunting on adjacent land is unsafe Lawyers for ''NBC Nightly News'' anchorman Tom Brokaw want a judge to require the Montana Board of Outfitters to review a decision that allows a Wyoming outfitter to guide big-game hunting trips on land next to Brokaw's Montana ranch. ''The complaint we have is safety, plain and simple,'' Clifford Edwards, a Billings attorney representing Brokaw, told District Judge Nels Swandal at a hearing Friday. ''Tom and (wife) Meredith are not anti-hunting - they are concerned for their safety.'' On Sept. 1, the Board of Outfitters granted Wyoming outfitter David Nelson's request to take up to 10 hunters onto more than 2,500 acres of private land bordering the Brokaws' West Boulder Ranch during archery season, court records said....
Column: Wise Use in the White House, Pt. 2 When George W. Bush stood in front of a giant sequoia in California in May 2001 and spoke of "A New Environmentalism for the Twenty-first Century" that would "protect the claims of nature while also protecting the legal rights of property owners," Norton was by his side nodding approvingly.13 In August 2003 she was again by his side as he toured the West burnishing his environmental image with talk of "protecting healthy forests" and "caring for National Parks." A Wise Use veteran, Norton helped Bush through his environmental tutorial as a presidential candidate, providing the intellectual arguments that deregulation, devolution, and free markets are the best way to achieve environmental goals....
Protection of desert is delicate balance From towering, white sand dunes to enormous boulders prized by world-class climbers, more than 7.7 million acres of the desert were protected in perpetuity 10 years ago this Sunday. Historic and hard-fought, the California Desert Protection Act expanded Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks and boosted their status from national monuments, placing them in the company of Yosemite and Yellowstone and among the nation's most prized collection of public lands....
Burns asks bison plan delay Sen. Conrad Burns demanded this week that the U.S. Department of Interior and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes "step back" and delay action for now on a controversial funding agreement to share federal responsibilities at the National Bison Range in Moiese and other wildlife facilities on the Flathead Reservation. "On behalf of my constituents, I am requesting that you slow this process down and move forward with slow and thoughtful deliberation," Burns said in a letter Thursday to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior Paul Hoffman in Washington. Hoffman has been leading the effort to get approval of the Annual Funding Agreement authorizing sharing of power and budget on the Bison Range....
Group charges feds with shady tinkering of Bison Range costs An environmental advocacy group charged Thursday that a high-ranking U.S. Department of Interior political appointee "cooked the books" to radically revise downward the anticipated extra cost of sharing management of the National Bison Range Complex with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "was forced to publicly repudiate its own cost estimates and issue new figures estimating the first-year cost at $23,460 - an amount more than 90 percent below the $300,000 to $500,000 first-year costs that USFWS had been publicly stating," said a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an nonprofit advocacy group made up of local, state and federal resource professionals....
Parks official opposes moving river channel A proposal to move a Hoback River channel to improve highway safety is "extreme and unacceptable," a national rivers program manager said. The Wyoming Department of Transportation is considering moving a segment of river channel as one of three alternatives to deal with a creeping landslide just east of Hoback Junction. By rerouting the river, WyDOT believes it can shore up the bottom of the landslide and stabilize the foundation for U.S. Highway 189-191....
Environmentalists Blast U.S-Utah Land Deal Known initially as the Sagebrush Rebellion, the anti-wilderness movement is a potent mix of rural, populist protest and corporate money from industries that benefit most from unrestricted access to federal land. Nowhere has the opposition been more formidable than in Utah, where less wilderness has been created than in any other Western state except Hawaii. The Clinton administration inflamed the anti-wilderness sentiment in 1996 by protecting 1.7 million acres as part of a new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The same year, Bruce Babbitt, Interior secretary under Clinton, renewed surveys of Utah lands with wilderness potential after numerous complaints that earlier surveys were faulty....
McGrath to sue Martz over Tongue River dispute Attorney General Mike McGrath plans to sue Gov. Judy Martz in a constitutional showdown over the governor's decision to get the state involved in a legal fight over ownership of an Eastern Montana river. McGrath, a Democrat, said Friday that he would file a lawsuit against the Republican governor next week, alleging that she has violated the Montana Constitution by having her attorney intervene in the federal court case on behalf of the state. The complaint, which will be filed Wednesday with the Montana Supreme Court, also will claim that she overstepped her legal bounds in ordering him to help represent the state in the lawsuit, he said....
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The Finish Line in Sight for Landmark Hage v. U.S. - Closing Arguments Heard in Takings Case for Nevada Rancher It’s been nearly fourteen years since Nevada rancher, Wayne Hage and his late wife, Jean, filed their takings case against the United States. On Thursday, October 21, 2004, ranchers from at least five states crowded into the small courtroom and spilled out into the hallway to hear the closing arguments in this landmark case being heard by Judge Loren Smith of the U.S. Federal Claims Court. Wayne Hage is no stranger to the courts. From the time Hage purchased Pine Creek Ranch in 1978 until he filed the takings case in 1991, Hage spent countless hours fighting the BLM and the Forest Service over his water and grazing rights. The mission of the government agencies was clearly to reclaim the use of the federal lands that Hage had permits on, by whatever means necessary, including fencing off Hage’s springs and the eventual confiscation of his cattle....
Lawyers for Brokaw say hunting on adjacent land is unsafe Lawyers for ''NBC Nightly News'' anchorman Tom Brokaw want a judge to require the Montana Board of Outfitters to review a decision that allows a Wyoming outfitter to guide big-game hunting trips on land next to Brokaw's Montana ranch. ''The complaint we have is safety, plain and simple,'' Clifford Edwards, a Billings attorney representing Brokaw, told District Judge Nels Swandal at a hearing Friday. ''Tom and (wife) Meredith are not anti-hunting - they are concerned for their safety.'' On Sept. 1, the Board of Outfitters granted Wyoming outfitter David Nelson's request to take up to 10 hunters onto more than 2,500 acres of private land bordering the Brokaws' West Boulder Ranch during archery season, court records said....
Column: Wise Use in the White House, Pt. 2 When George W. Bush stood in front of a giant sequoia in California in May 2001 and spoke of "A New Environmentalism for the Twenty-first Century" that would "protect the claims of nature while also protecting the legal rights of property owners," Norton was by his side nodding approvingly.13 In August 2003 she was again by his side as he toured the West burnishing his environmental image with talk of "protecting healthy forests" and "caring for National Parks." A Wise Use veteran, Norton helped Bush through his environmental tutorial as a presidential candidate, providing the intellectual arguments that deregulation, devolution, and free markets are the best way to achieve environmental goals....
Protection of desert is delicate balance From towering, white sand dunes to enormous boulders prized by world-class climbers, more than 7.7 million acres of the desert were protected in perpetuity 10 years ago this Sunday. Historic and hard-fought, the California Desert Protection Act expanded Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks and boosted their status from national monuments, placing them in the company of Yosemite and Yellowstone and among the nation's most prized collection of public lands....
Burns asks bison plan delay Sen. Conrad Burns demanded this week that the U.S. Department of Interior and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes "step back" and delay action for now on a controversial funding agreement to share federal responsibilities at the National Bison Range in Moiese and other wildlife facilities on the Flathead Reservation. "On behalf of my constituents, I am requesting that you slow this process down and move forward with slow and thoughtful deliberation," Burns said in a letter Thursday to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior Paul Hoffman in Washington. Hoffman has been leading the effort to get approval of the Annual Funding Agreement authorizing sharing of power and budget on the Bison Range....
Group charges feds with shady tinkering of Bison Range costs An environmental advocacy group charged Thursday that a high-ranking U.S. Department of Interior political appointee "cooked the books" to radically revise downward the anticipated extra cost of sharing management of the National Bison Range Complex with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service "was forced to publicly repudiate its own cost estimates and issue new figures estimating the first-year cost at $23,460 - an amount more than 90 percent below the $300,000 to $500,000 first-year costs that USFWS had been publicly stating," said a press release from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an nonprofit advocacy group made up of local, state and federal resource professionals....
Parks official opposes moving river channel A proposal to move a Hoback River channel to improve highway safety is "extreme and unacceptable," a national rivers program manager said. The Wyoming Department of Transportation is considering moving a segment of river channel as one of three alternatives to deal with a creeping landslide just east of Hoback Junction. By rerouting the river, WyDOT believes it can shore up the bottom of the landslide and stabilize the foundation for U.S. Highway 189-191....
Environmentalists Blast U.S-Utah Land Deal Known initially as the Sagebrush Rebellion, the anti-wilderness movement is a potent mix of rural, populist protest and corporate money from industries that benefit most from unrestricted access to federal land. Nowhere has the opposition been more formidable than in Utah, where less wilderness has been created than in any other Western state except Hawaii. The Clinton administration inflamed the anti-wilderness sentiment in 1996 by protecting 1.7 million acres as part of a new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The same year, Bruce Babbitt, Interior secretary under Clinton, renewed surveys of Utah lands with wilderness potential after numerous complaints that earlier surveys were faulty....
McGrath to sue Martz over Tongue River dispute Attorney General Mike McGrath plans to sue Gov. Judy Martz in a constitutional showdown over the governor's decision to get the state involved in a legal fight over ownership of an Eastern Montana river. McGrath, a Democrat, said Friday that he would file a lawsuit against the Republican governor next week, alleging that she has violated the Montana Constitution by having her attorney intervene in the federal court case on behalf of the state. The complaint, which will be filed Wednesday with the Montana Supreme Court, also will claim that she overstepped her legal bounds in ordering him to help represent the state in the lawsuit, he said....
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Friday, October 29, 2004
KIT LANEY/DIAMOND BAR CATTLE COMPANY
Email From Caren Cowan
Kit Laney, long embattled with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) over the Diamond Bar Allotment in the Gila National Forest, received a five (5) month sentence today from Federal Judge John Conway after entering into a plea agreement with the federal government regarding charges stemming from Laney's attempting to release livestock rounded up by the USFS.
Clearly disturbed by having to issue such a sentence, Judge Conway stressed that it was his desire that Laney serve the time in a prison "boot camp" or half way house as opposed to a county jail. But, the judge pointed out that he could not direct the place of service. Indications in the courtroom were that the Bureau of Prisons was amenable to boot camp service.
Additionally, Laney will have one (1) year of unsupervised probation and was assessed a minimal fine. He will be required to report for his service in mid January 2005.
But perhaps the most disturbing part of the morning was as a tremendously shaken Sherry Laney left the courtroom. She was confronted by a man who shoved a sealed envelope at her. He said that it was a motion for costs and fees for Isaiah Baker. Sherry was too stunned to even respond or accept the envelope, which bore the return address of the National Wildlife Federation. After a person comforting Sherry took the envelope, the man turned to leave, saying that she would be receiving the motion in the mail as well.
Isaiah Baker is one of the contractors who rounded up the Laney cattle from the Diamond Bar. The Laneys pressed cattle theft charges against Baker in Catron County. Those charges were dismissed by the court in Catron County.
What on earth has the National Wildlife Federation got to do with a USFS contractor --- little alone representing one in a legal capacity?
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Email From Caren Cowan
Kit Laney, long embattled with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) over the Diamond Bar Allotment in the Gila National Forest, received a five (5) month sentence today from Federal Judge John Conway after entering into a plea agreement with the federal government regarding charges stemming from Laney's attempting to release livestock rounded up by the USFS.
Clearly disturbed by having to issue such a sentence, Judge Conway stressed that it was his desire that Laney serve the time in a prison "boot camp" or half way house as opposed to a county jail. But, the judge pointed out that he could not direct the place of service. Indications in the courtroom were that the Bureau of Prisons was amenable to boot camp service.
Additionally, Laney will have one (1) year of unsupervised probation and was assessed a minimal fine. He will be required to report for his service in mid January 2005.
But perhaps the most disturbing part of the morning was as a tremendously shaken Sherry Laney left the courtroom. She was confronted by a man who shoved a sealed envelope at her. He said that it was a motion for costs and fees for Isaiah Baker. Sherry was too stunned to even respond or accept the envelope, which bore the return address of the National Wildlife Federation. After a person comforting Sherry took the envelope, the man turned to leave, saying that she would be receiving the motion in the mail as well.
Isaiah Baker is one of the contractors who rounded up the Laney cattle from the Diamond Bar. The Laneys pressed cattle theft charges against Baker in Catron County. Those charges were dismissed by the court in Catron County.
What on earth has the National Wildlife Federation got to do with a USFS contractor --- little alone representing one in a legal capacity?
Permalink 0 comments
NEWS ROUNDUP
Hunter shoots guide Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? One Florida hunter, that's who. Now his fear, and his lead-flinging reaction to it, has left him facing criminal charges for blowing a big hole in his guide's arm with a .300-caliber Magnum rifle in Paradise Valley Tuesday. David Williams, 38, told police that he thought the two men and horses approaching in the dark were wolves coming to get him....
Ranchers take on Canyon Resources One of the hottest fights in the debate over repealing Montana's 1998 ban on open pit cyanide leach mining comes to a head today in a Lewistown courtroom. Lawyers for Canyon Resources Corp., the Colorado-based mining company that has spent almost $3 million promoting Initiative 147, square off against attorneys for Alan and Stephanie Shammel, Lewistown-area ranchers who sued the company in 2001 for polluting their water and also depriving them of it. The Shammels have appeared in television and direct-mail ads opposing I-147, saying Canyon's only other open pit cyanide leach mine in Montana polluted their water....
Politics, Gas Fuel Battle Over New Mexico Forest A Texas energy company may get rights to drill in a pristine swathe of a New Mexico national forest after a White House task force intervened on its behalf, a move that has become a hot issue in the battleground state before next week's presidential election. Oil giant Pennzoil donated the 40,000-acre parcel in northern New Mexico known as Valle Vidal for conservation in 1982, and it has been a protected wildlife and recreation area as part of the Carson National Forest. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Houston-based oil company El Paso Corp., a large donor to Republican campaigns and candidates, asked the White House's energy task force in 2003 to intervene on its behalf with the Forest Service....
Activists protest plans to change forest Roadless Rule Environmentalists gathered Thursday at a Salt Lake City outdoor recreation store to protest the Bush administration's rollback of the Roadless Rule, designed to protect 60 million acres of national forest land from encroachment. They brought along more than 1 million public comments, piled high in duffel bags on the store's floor, to underscore their main point: They've got a lot of company....
Feds pay visit, launch invasive species attack The U.S. Forest Service chose the town of Prineville Thursday to unveil a national effort to prevent and control the growing threat of invasive species and non-native plants spreading quickly across the country. The step is part of the president's Healthy Forests Initiative to restore forest and rangeland health and protect communities from wildland fire and supports his executive order promoting cooperative conservation. "Millions of acres of public and private lands are at risk from non-native species," said Mary Rey, Department of Agriculture undersecretary for natural resources and environment. "Each year, the United States loses 1.7 million acres to the spread of these invasives, in addition to spending billions of dollars on control measures."....
Column: Wise Use in the White House, Pt. 1 Still, President Bush and many of his top advisors come out of the ranks of the oil, energy, timber, and mining industries that Teddy Roosevelt condemned as "the great special interests." Others, like Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, are veterans of the Wise Use movement these industries helped create and nourish in the 1990s and whose radical agenda has now become White House policy. "I wish we could take credit for that but we can't," admits Wise Use founder Ron Arnold. "Dick Cheney sits on my Board of Directors but we're not pen pals. Sometimes you just put something out there long enough and it gets picked up, despite what you do."....
Column: The Green Backlash, 10 Years On Despite polls showing that 76 percent of Americans considered themselves green, the New York Times environmental reporter was promoting the Wise Use/Property Rights backlash as "the third wave" of environmentalism. "I think that the [Wise Use] movement is maybe one of the most important and interesting movements to arise in environmentalism in a long time," he claimed, "because they are prying into the environmental issues that we've all grappled with for two decades. Is there really global warming? Is there really an ozone problem? Does toxic waste cleanup really represent the best use of public financing?" He went on to portray the anti-enviro backlash as a bottom-up citizen movement. "The Property Rights groups I know have no corporate funding at all. They're mom-and-pop community environmental groups," he claimed, and, because he was from the New York Times, other reporters believed him....
Under the Radar The environment has been a virtual non-issue in this year's election campaign, with even the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- such a hot topic in the 2000 race -- off the radar for now. So, with the public focused on terrorism, war, taxes and healthcare, a small group of government officials and oil executives has seized the moment to close in on a deal to open one of Alaska's biggest wildlife refuges to oil drilling. Government scientists, environmentalists, and Native Americans in the area say the arrangement -- which has the support of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and which won preliminary approval last week from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- will be a precedent-setting erosion of historic environmental protections of Alaska wildlands, and could open the way to widespread oil exploration in the nation's wildest places, starting with the 9 million-acre Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge....
U.S. sat on ecology report, critics say A committee of experts urged the government in March to do much more to preserve biological diversity and ecological integrity in the national parks, but the report has "languished," a panel member says. That member, Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer who is explorer in residence at the National Geographic Society, said she and her colleagues had expected that the National Park Service would distribute the report and take action on its findings. Instead, she said, "it has just languished."...
Feds approve hydro project at Glacier Bay The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted Wednesday to let the diesel-dependent community of Gustavus build a hydroelectric project in designated wilderness in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Residents in the northern Southeast Alaska town pay some of the highest utility bills in Alaska - recently as high as 51 cents per kilowatt hour - in part because of the Gustavus Electric Co.'s dependence on expensive diesel fuel. The project cannot begin until Glacier Bay National Park trades to Alaska about 1,000 acres of designated wilderness along Falls Creek, the proposed site of the project....
Appeals court: BLM must look at cumulative impact The U.S. Bureau of Land Management was ordered Thursday to reassess the environmental effects of four timber sales in Southern Oregon based on their cumulative impact, instead of their individual impact, possibly affecting the way the agency reviews sales across the West. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene after the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildland Center went to court to force the BLM to reconsider its environmental assessment of the four proposed sales in the Little Butte Creek watershed near Mount McLoughlin, in the Cascade Range just east of Medford. Brenna Bell, a Portland attorney for the center, said the ruling may have broad policy implications for the BLM and the Bush administration's Healthy Forest Initiative....
BLM lease for Martin's Cove absent clause allowing sale The Martin's Cove lease does not give the Mormon church a right of first refusal to buy the federal property if it ever came up for sale. In an earlier draft of the lease, the Bureau of Land Management afforded the church "a right of first refusal to purchase, lease or otherwise manage Martin's Cove" if the property were sold or title was transferred to another party. In the lease signed Tuesday, the word "purchase" is excluded. Don Ogaard, BLM's manager for the Martin's Cove site, said that change was made to reflect the original language of the congressional act mandating the lease of the church last year....
BLM rejects lone bid for coal-rich land The Bureau of Land Management rejected the lone bid for 2,813 acres of coal-rich land in the Powder River Basin. The $220 million bid on Wednesday by Ark Land WR Inc., a subsidiary of Arch Coal Inc., did not meet the estimated fair market value of the land, the BLM said. The tract contains an estimated 327 million tons of mineable coal....
Subgroups monitor gas development When the Bureau of Land Management approved the Pinedale Anticline oil and gas development project in 2000, the decision contained the caveat that the agency form a special group to monitor development and evaluate future drilling proposals. Now it's up to about 90 Wyoming residents to formulate those monitoring plans and make recommendations on possible changes to the level and pace of energy development in the gas-rich Anticline, BLM officials say. The volunteers are a part of the recently established Pinedale Anticline Working Group, according to BLM Pinedale Field Office Planning and Environmental Coordinator Carol Kruse. The nine-member working group was appointed earlier this year by Interior Secretary Gale Norton....
Nevada takes over ownership of Carson Lake State and federal officials signed an agreement Thursday to transfer ownership of Carson Lake near Fallon from federal to state control. Gov. Kenny Guinn, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett W. Raley signed the pact during a ceremony in Carson City. The title transfer was authorized under the Truckee River Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990....
Recasting Wilderness as Open for Business The sculpted buttes of Wild Horse Mesa, the vast escarpment of the Book Cliffs and the soaring ramparts of Upper Desolation Canyon near here have become a prime battleground in the Bush administration's campaign to curb wilderness protection throughout the country. In 1999, the federal government acknowledged the unique character of the area, where 150 million years of the earth's geologic history unfolds and the forces of nature continue to shape the rugged landscape. The Bureau of Land Management put more than 440,000 acres off-limits to industrial development. The protection was short-lived. Within four years, the area was opened to oil and gas exploration....
NASA Expert Criticizes Bush on Global Warming Policy A top NASA climate expert who twice briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on global warming plans to criticize the administration's approach to the issue in a lecture at the University of Iowa tonight and say that a senior administration official told him last year not to discuss dangerous consequences of rising temperatures. The expert, Dr. James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, expects to say that the Bush administration has ignored growing evidence that sea levels could rise significantly unless prompt action is taken to reduce heat-trapping emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes....
Column: Michael Leavitt: EPA’s Messenger As several SEJ members remarked, it’s surprising that Leavitt, the former governor of Utah, is not more visible as the Bush administration’s point man on the environment. He comes across as both likable and moderate—qualities in short supply in Bush’s Washington. He’s very folksy, tells reasonably funny jokes and self-effacing stories, and admits candidly that mere days before an election he’s not planning to generate any controversial headlines....
Historic Sopori Ranch sold for $22M One of Southern Arizona's largest and oldest cattle ranches changed hands this week in a $22 million purchase that could lead to its development in a year. The new owners of the Sopori Ranch say they are not sure how they will develop the nearly 12,600 acres they bought Monday from an Illinois-based family that had held the ranch for more than a decade. The cash purchase also includes the ownership of state and federal grazing leases, giving the landowners the ability to run cattle on an additional 45,800 publicly owned acres in the surrounding hills....
94-Year-Old Rancher Spends Night In Jail His family helped settle the town of New Braunfels, but now a 94-year-old rancher is in danger of losing his 200 acre ranch if he doesn't clean up his act. Jerome Schumann spent the night in jail for burning tires Wednesday. He says he was just trying to help clean up his ranch, which is littered with junked cars and scrap metal. Comal County authorities agree it's time for Schumann to clean up his act....
History in the making Mud mixed with straw, poured into wooden molds and left in the sun to bake. Perhaps not the first materials that would spring to mind as the building blocks of the oldest house in Long Beach, but it is thick walls of just such adobe bricks that form the core of Rancho Los Alamitos. Around 1800, laborers in the employ of a retired Spanish soldier named Juan Manuel Perez Nieto built a rough, four-room shelter for the wealthy cattle rancher's vaqueros , or cowboys, and their horses on a hill overlooking vast meadows streaked with orange poppies and blue lupine. Over the next 150 years, generations of American settlers slowly built an 18-room wood-frame ranch house based on East Coast architectural principles around those original walls, a gradual transformation that reflects the historical events that changed California from a remote Spanish territory into the 31st state....
Five cowgirls inducted into hall Meeting Bob Phillips was almost as big a thrill for Sherri Mell as being inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. "My Gosh, Bob Phillips!" gushed a breathless Mell, an expert calf roper and riding instructor. She said she never misses his TV program, Texas Country Reporter. Phillips was the master of ceremonies Thursday as Fort Worth's National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame added five legendary cowgirls to its ranks. Inductees this year included Mell, the late actress Gail Davis, jockey Wantha Davis, late trick rider Connie Griffith and Mary Jo Milner, a cutting horse rider and breeder....
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Hunter shoots guide Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? One Florida hunter, that's who. Now his fear, and his lead-flinging reaction to it, has left him facing criminal charges for blowing a big hole in his guide's arm with a .300-caliber Magnum rifle in Paradise Valley Tuesday. David Williams, 38, told police that he thought the two men and horses approaching in the dark were wolves coming to get him....
Ranchers take on Canyon Resources One of the hottest fights in the debate over repealing Montana's 1998 ban on open pit cyanide leach mining comes to a head today in a Lewistown courtroom. Lawyers for Canyon Resources Corp., the Colorado-based mining company that has spent almost $3 million promoting Initiative 147, square off against attorneys for Alan and Stephanie Shammel, Lewistown-area ranchers who sued the company in 2001 for polluting their water and also depriving them of it. The Shammels have appeared in television and direct-mail ads opposing I-147, saying Canyon's only other open pit cyanide leach mine in Montana polluted their water....
Politics, Gas Fuel Battle Over New Mexico Forest A Texas energy company may get rights to drill in a pristine swathe of a New Mexico national forest after a White House task force intervened on its behalf, a move that has become a hot issue in the battleground state before next week's presidential election. Oil giant Pennzoil donated the 40,000-acre parcel in northern New Mexico known as Valle Vidal for conservation in 1982, and it has been a protected wildlife and recreation area as part of the Carson National Forest. According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Houston-based oil company El Paso Corp., a large donor to Republican campaigns and candidates, asked the White House's energy task force in 2003 to intervene on its behalf with the Forest Service....
Activists protest plans to change forest Roadless Rule Environmentalists gathered Thursday at a Salt Lake City outdoor recreation store to protest the Bush administration's rollback of the Roadless Rule, designed to protect 60 million acres of national forest land from encroachment. They brought along more than 1 million public comments, piled high in duffel bags on the store's floor, to underscore their main point: They've got a lot of company....
Feds pay visit, launch invasive species attack The U.S. Forest Service chose the town of Prineville Thursday to unveil a national effort to prevent and control the growing threat of invasive species and non-native plants spreading quickly across the country. The step is part of the president's Healthy Forests Initiative to restore forest and rangeland health and protect communities from wildland fire and supports his executive order promoting cooperative conservation. "Millions of acres of public and private lands are at risk from non-native species," said Mary Rey, Department of Agriculture undersecretary for natural resources and environment. "Each year, the United States loses 1.7 million acres to the spread of these invasives, in addition to spending billions of dollars on control measures."....
Column: Wise Use in the White House, Pt. 1 Still, President Bush and many of his top advisors come out of the ranks of the oil, energy, timber, and mining industries that Teddy Roosevelt condemned as "the great special interests." Others, like Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, are veterans of the Wise Use movement these industries helped create and nourish in the 1990s and whose radical agenda has now become White House policy. "I wish we could take credit for that but we can't," admits Wise Use founder Ron Arnold. "Dick Cheney sits on my Board of Directors but we're not pen pals. Sometimes you just put something out there long enough and it gets picked up, despite what you do."....
Column: The Green Backlash, 10 Years On Despite polls showing that 76 percent of Americans considered themselves green, the New York Times environmental reporter was promoting the Wise Use/Property Rights backlash as "the third wave" of environmentalism. "I think that the [Wise Use] movement is maybe one of the most important and interesting movements to arise in environmentalism in a long time," he claimed, "because they are prying into the environmental issues that we've all grappled with for two decades. Is there really global warming? Is there really an ozone problem? Does toxic waste cleanup really represent the best use of public financing?" He went on to portray the anti-enviro backlash as a bottom-up citizen movement. "The Property Rights groups I know have no corporate funding at all. They're mom-and-pop community environmental groups," he claimed, and, because he was from the New York Times, other reporters believed him....
Under the Radar The environment has been a virtual non-issue in this year's election campaign, with even the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- such a hot topic in the 2000 race -- off the radar for now. So, with the public focused on terrorism, war, taxes and healthcare, a small group of government officials and oil executives has seized the moment to close in on a deal to open one of Alaska's biggest wildlife refuges to oil drilling. Government scientists, environmentalists, and Native Americans in the area say the arrangement -- which has the support of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and which won preliminary approval last week from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- will be a precedent-setting erosion of historic environmental protections of Alaska wildlands, and could open the way to widespread oil exploration in the nation's wildest places, starting with the 9 million-acre Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge....
U.S. sat on ecology report, critics say A committee of experts urged the government in March to do much more to preserve biological diversity and ecological integrity in the national parks, but the report has "languished," a panel member says. That member, Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer who is explorer in residence at the National Geographic Society, said she and her colleagues had expected that the National Park Service would distribute the report and take action on its findings. Instead, she said, "it has just languished."...
Feds approve hydro project at Glacier Bay The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted Wednesday to let the diesel-dependent community of Gustavus build a hydroelectric project in designated wilderness in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Residents in the northern Southeast Alaska town pay some of the highest utility bills in Alaska - recently as high as 51 cents per kilowatt hour - in part because of the Gustavus Electric Co.'s dependence on expensive diesel fuel. The project cannot begin until Glacier Bay National Park trades to Alaska about 1,000 acres of designated wilderness along Falls Creek, the proposed site of the project....
Appeals court: BLM must look at cumulative impact The U.S. Bureau of Land Management was ordered Thursday to reassess the environmental effects of four timber sales in Southern Oregon based on their cumulative impact, instead of their individual impact, possibly affecting the way the agency reviews sales across the West. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene after the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildland Center went to court to force the BLM to reconsider its environmental assessment of the four proposed sales in the Little Butte Creek watershed near Mount McLoughlin, in the Cascade Range just east of Medford. Brenna Bell, a Portland attorney for the center, said the ruling may have broad policy implications for the BLM and the Bush administration's Healthy Forest Initiative....
BLM lease for Martin's Cove absent clause allowing sale The Martin's Cove lease does not give the Mormon church a right of first refusal to buy the federal property if it ever came up for sale. In an earlier draft of the lease, the Bureau of Land Management afforded the church "a right of first refusal to purchase, lease or otherwise manage Martin's Cove" if the property were sold or title was transferred to another party. In the lease signed Tuesday, the word "purchase" is excluded. Don Ogaard, BLM's manager for the Martin's Cove site, said that change was made to reflect the original language of the congressional act mandating the lease of the church last year....
BLM rejects lone bid for coal-rich land The Bureau of Land Management rejected the lone bid for 2,813 acres of coal-rich land in the Powder River Basin. The $220 million bid on Wednesday by Ark Land WR Inc., a subsidiary of Arch Coal Inc., did not meet the estimated fair market value of the land, the BLM said. The tract contains an estimated 327 million tons of mineable coal....
Subgroups monitor gas development When the Bureau of Land Management approved the Pinedale Anticline oil and gas development project in 2000, the decision contained the caveat that the agency form a special group to monitor development and evaluate future drilling proposals. Now it's up to about 90 Wyoming residents to formulate those monitoring plans and make recommendations on possible changes to the level and pace of energy development in the gas-rich Anticline, BLM officials say. The volunteers are a part of the recently established Pinedale Anticline Working Group, according to BLM Pinedale Field Office Planning and Environmental Coordinator Carol Kruse. The nine-member working group was appointed earlier this year by Interior Secretary Gale Norton....
Nevada takes over ownership of Carson Lake State and federal officials signed an agreement Thursday to transfer ownership of Carson Lake near Fallon from federal to state control. Gov. Kenny Guinn, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett W. Raley signed the pact during a ceremony in Carson City. The title transfer was authorized under the Truckee River Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990....
Recasting Wilderness as Open for Business The sculpted buttes of Wild Horse Mesa, the vast escarpment of the Book Cliffs and the soaring ramparts of Upper Desolation Canyon near here have become a prime battleground in the Bush administration's campaign to curb wilderness protection throughout the country. In 1999, the federal government acknowledged the unique character of the area, where 150 million years of the earth's geologic history unfolds and the forces of nature continue to shape the rugged landscape. The Bureau of Land Management put more than 440,000 acres off-limits to industrial development. The protection was short-lived. Within four years, the area was opened to oil and gas exploration....
NASA Expert Criticizes Bush on Global Warming Policy A top NASA climate expert who twice briefed Vice President Dick Cheney on global warming plans to criticize the administration's approach to the issue in a lecture at the University of Iowa tonight and say that a senior administration official told him last year not to discuss dangerous consequences of rising temperatures. The expert, Dr. James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan, expects to say that the Bush administration has ignored growing evidence that sea levels could rise significantly unless prompt action is taken to reduce heat-trapping emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes....
Column: Michael Leavitt: EPA’s Messenger As several SEJ members remarked, it’s surprising that Leavitt, the former governor of Utah, is not more visible as the Bush administration’s point man on the environment. He comes across as both likable and moderate—qualities in short supply in Bush’s Washington. He’s very folksy, tells reasonably funny jokes and self-effacing stories, and admits candidly that mere days before an election he’s not planning to generate any controversial headlines....
Historic Sopori Ranch sold for $22M One of Southern Arizona's largest and oldest cattle ranches changed hands this week in a $22 million purchase that could lead to its development in a year. The new owners of the Sopori Ranch say they are not sure how they will develop the nearly 12,600 acres they bought Monday from an Illinois-based family that had held the ranch for more than a decade. The cash purchase also includes the ownership of state and federal grazing leases, giving the landowners the ability to run cattle on an additional 45,800 publicly owned acres in the surrounding hills....
94-Year-Old Rancher Spends Night In Jail His family helped settle the town of New Braunfels, but now a 94-year-old rancher is in danger of losing his 200 acre ranch if he doesn't clean up his act. Jerome Schumann spent the night in jail for burning tires Wednesday. He says he was just trying to help clean up his ranch, which is littered with junked cars and scrap metal. Comal County authorities agree it's time for Schumann to clean up his act....
History in the making Mud mixed with straw, poured into wooden molds and left in the sun to bake. Perhaps not the first materials that would spring to mind as the building blocks of the oldest house in Long Beach, but it is thick walls of just such adobe bricks that form the core of Rancho Los Alamitos. Around 1800, laborers in the employ of a retired Spanish soldier named Juan Manuel Perez Nieto built a rough, four-room shelter for the wealthy cattle rancher's vaqueros , or cowboys, and their horses on a hill overlooking vast meadows streaked with orange poppies and blue lupine. Over the next 150 years, generations of American settlers slowly built an 18-room wood-frame ranch house based on East Coast architectural principles around those original walls, a gradual transformation that reflects the historical events that changed California from a remote Spanish territory into the 31st state....
Five cowgirls inducted into hall Meeting Bob Phillips was almost as big a thrill for Sherri Mell as being inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. "My Gosh, Bob Phillips!" gushed a breathless Mell, an expert calf roper and riding instructor. She said she never misses his TV program, Texas Country Reporter. Phillips was the master of ceremonies Thursday as Fort Worth's National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame added five legendary cowgirls to its ranks. Inductees this year included Mell, the late actress Gail Davis, jockey Wantha Davis, late trick rider Connie Griffith and Mary Jo Milner, a cutting horse rider and breeder....
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Thursday, October 28, 2004
League of Private Property Voters Names John Kerry and John Edwards Enemies of Property Rights
The League of Private Property Voters (LPPV) today released an analysis of the votes of Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and John Edwards (D-SC) from the Private Property Congressional Vote Index from 1999 through 2003.
Every Senator and Representative who scores at least 80% receives a “Champion” of Private Property Rightis certificate. Every Member who gets 20% or less is rated an “Enemy” of Private Property Rights. Full size examples of actual “Champion” and “Enemy” certificates are printed in each Vote Index.
Senator Kerry achieved a score of “zero”on private property and resource issues all five years. Senator Edwards score was 14% for 2001, 20% for 2002 and “zero” for 2003 the only years he was in the Senate.
Senator Kerry was given the prestigious positioning in the scorecard by having his “Enemy of Property Rights”certificate printed full size inside.
Senator Kerry voted multiple times to stop death tax repeal and against ranchers with grazing permits. He supported stopping Klamath River irrigation, for political speech restrictions, against oil and gas exploration in national monuments, for international court powers, against forest fire protection funding, against the Healthy Forest Act, for a farmland land grab, for a tax break for land trusts, and co-sponsored the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), the largest land grab bill in history.
A greater search of Senator Kerryis record shows that in the late 90is he opposed working toward energy independence by opposing drilling in ANWR on the coastal plain of Alaska, opposed the Private Property Rights Implementation Act, opposed RS 2477 Rights-of-way, and opposed sales of excess Federal land.
Senator Edwards opposed repealing the death tax several times, supported environmental pork projects, and a tax break for land trusts.
He supported political speech restrictions, opposed oil and gas exploration in national monuments, supported giving an international court powers over US Soldiers and others, and against fire protection funding.
For comparison purposes, President George Bush supported drilling at ANWR on coastal plain of Alaska, supported the Healthy Forest Initiative, supported repealing the death tax, supported exploration for oil and gas in national monuments, was against giving US Sovereignty to international courts, and supported forest fire protection funding.
The League of Private Property Voters is a national non-partisan coalition of over 600 co-sponsoring organizations including the American Land Rights Association, Alliance for America, People for the USA, Blue Ribbon Coalition, American Policy Center, numerous Farm Bureaus, mining, grazing, forestry and agriculture groups as well as most national, regional and local private property, multiple-use and taxpayer organizations.
The 2003 Private Property Congressional Vote Index is available in both printed form and on our highly regarded landrights.org website.
Go to http://www.landrights.org for the complete 2003 Private Property Congressional Vote Index including all the individual scores for every Senator and Representative....
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The League of Private Property Voters (LPPV) today released an analysis of the votes of Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and John Edwards (D-SC) from the Private Property Congressional Vote Index from 1999 through 2003.
Every Senator and Representative who scores at least 80% receives a “Champion” of Private Property Rightis certificate. Every Member who gets 20% or less is rated an “Enemy” of Private Property Rights. Full size examples of actual “Champion” and “Enemy” certificates are printed in each Vote Index.
Senator Kerry achieved a score of “zero”on private property and resource issues all five years. Senator Edwards score was 14% for 2001, 20% for 2002 and “zero” for 2003 the only years he was in the Senate.
Senator Kerry was given the prestigious positioning in the scorecard by having his “Enemy of Property Rights”certificate printed full size inside.
Senator Kerry voted multiple times to stop death tax repeal and against ranchers with grazing permits. He supported stopping Klamath River irrigation, for political speech restrictions, against oil and gas exploration in national monuments, for international court powers, against forest fire protection funding, against the Healthy Forest Act, for a farmland land grab, for a tax break for land trusts, and co-sponsored the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), the largest land grab bill in history.
A greater search of Senator Kerryis record shows that in the late 90is he opposed working toward energy independence by opposing drilling in ANWR on the coastal plain of Alaska, opposed the Private Property Rights Implementation Act, opposed RS 2477 Rights-of-way, and opposed sales of excess Federal land.
Senator Edwards opposed repealing the death tax several times, supported environmental pork projects, and a tax break for land trusts.
He supported political speech restrictions, opposed oil and gas exploration in national monuments, supported giving an international court powers over US Soldiers and others, and against fire protection funding.
For comparison purposes, President George Bush supported drilling at ANWR on coastal plain of Alaska, supported the Healthy Forest Initiative, supported repealing the death tax, supported exploration for oil and gas in national monuments, was against giving US Sovereignty to international courts, and supported forest fire protection funding.
The League of Private Property Voters is a national non-partisan coalition of over 600 co-sponsoring organizations including the American Land Rights Association, Alliance for America, People for the USA, Blue Ribbon Coalition, American Policy Center, numerous Farm Bureaus, mining, grazing, forestry and agriculture groups as well as most national, regional and local private property, multiple-use and taxpayer organizations.
The 2003 Private Property Congressional Vote Index is available in both printed form and on our highly regarded landrights.org website.
Go to http://www.landrights.org for the complete 2003 Private Property Congressional Vote Index including all the individual scores for every Senator and Representative....
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KIT LANEY/DIAMOND BAR CATTLE COMPANY
It has been reported to me that Judge John Conway sentenced Kit Laney to 5 months in jail and 5 months house arrest. I was also told Judge Conway said this was one of the hardest sentencing decisions he has made, and that he would try to see that the 5 months were not served in a regular prison.
Most disturbingly, it was also reported to me that an attorney representing an environmental group served papers on Sherry Laney stating they were taking her to court for court costs and legal fees in a related matter. These papers were handed to her while she was still sitting and right after Judge Conway sentenced Kit. More to come on this as the facts become available.....
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It has been reported to me that Judge John Conway sentenced Kit Laney to 5 months in jail and 5 months house arrest. I was also told Judge Conway said this was one of the hardest sentencing decisions he has made, and that he would try to see that the 5 months were not served in a regular prison.
Most disturbingly, it was also reported to me that an attorney representing an environmental group served papers on Sherry Laney stating they were taking her to court for court costs and legal fees in a related matter. These papers were handed to her while she was still sitting and right after Judge Conway sentenced Kit. More to come on this as the facts become available.....
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Zoning power gets on the ballot The war in Iraq and homeland security are dominating the presidential campaign. But measures on ballots Tuesday across the USA show that Americans want to get a handle on issues in their own backyards: sprawl, big-box stores, traffic and the environment. In a number of communities from Florida to California, citizens groups and developers are using ballot referendums to try to wrest control of land-use decisions from local officials. A trend that began in California is picking up steam elsewhere, says Phyllis Myers, president of State Resource Strategies in Washington, D.C., a consulting firm that has tracked state and local ballot measures for more than 10 years. California has pioneered the use of ballot measures to restrict taxes, protect land and manage growth....
Ski village moves forward The Mineral County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved zoning plans for a highly controversial mountaintop village near the Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwestern Colorado. After listening to comments from roughly two dozen speakers at an all-day hearing, the panel voted 3-0 to approve a proposal by Texas billionaire B.J. "Red" McCombs to build what could be the state's largest resort village of its kind....
NPS Retirees: National Park Service Is Hiding Report Calling for More Scientific Approach to Park Management The 353-member Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees (CCNPSR) today publicly called on National Park Service (NPS) Director Fran Mainella to stop stonewalling the release of a major report that urges a more scientific approach to management of America's national parks. The report now being kept under wraps outlines steps for "reducing known shortcomings in past levels of NPS support for using science as a management tool" in order to "ensure the future of the nation's natural heritage that is reflected in the National Park System." According to CCNPSR, the report is being held hostage to the Bush Administration's campaign of ignoring science in order to clear the way for controversial steps -- such as opening up Yellowstone National Park to snowmobiles -- that violate the NPS mission of protecting the resources of the national park system....
LDS Church to pay to lease Martin's Cove The LDS Church will pay $16,000 a year to lease public land surrounding the Martin's Cove Historical Site in Wyoming under a 25-year agreement signed Tuesday with the Bureau of Land Management. Although critics of the lease say they still may file suit, the deal may close a six-year effort by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to acquire the property Mormon faithful consider sacred ground. Although no archaeological evidence has been found, Martin's Cove is believed to be the area where an 1856 blizzard took the lives of an estimated 200 European converts to Mormonism who were traveling to territorial Utah by pulling handcarts across the high plains....
Tribe wins key contract status A company created by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation has landed a contract that makes it a preferred source for up to $100 million in federal projects. Under the Department of Labor's multi-year award, NWB Technology, a subsidiary of tribally-owned NWB Economic Development Corp., will offer information technology services, surveying and mapping, energy consulting, security and surveillance to various federal agencies. In all, the $100 million worth of contracts could generate hundreds of positions, among them internships and on-the-job training slots for the 450 members of the Northwestern Band....
Ancient lands restored to Acoma In the 1870s, federal land surveyors failed to include a portion of Acoma's tribal lands within the reservation's boundaries. The land was then deemed "public land" and patented to the old Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1908. Although surface rights were restored to the pueblo in 1936, it has taken the efforts of five Acoma administrations to realize the restoration of subsurface mineral rights on the lands....
Enviros, BLM spar over Roan Environmental groups attacked plans to drill on the Roan Plateau from a different angle Wednesday by contending that the Bureau of Land Management has grossly exaggerated the amount of natural gas available. A coalition led by the Wilderness Society claimed its analysis of government data shows 400 billion cubic feet of gas could be recovered using technology available today from under the Roan Plateau Planning Area. Earlier studies by the BLM contended that 15.4 trillion cubic feet is beneath the 127,000-acre area....
Dugway seeks to obtain more land Dugway Proving Ground, one of America's largest military bases, has been thinking about growing even larger. It's unclear whether the project is the revival of a 1988 Dugway effort to obtain a swath of public land 23 miles wide by 3 miles long, where chemical and conventional weapons contamination occurred. But what is certain is that two other projects besides the expansion show the military wants stronger action to protect the public from leftover ordinance. Officials of Dugway — the bigger-than-Rhode Island base sprawling across much of Utah's western desert — aren't saying how much they would like it to expand or even why....
Part-Time Paradise It’s the same story from Vail to Telluride, from Park City, Utah, to Sun Valley, Idaho. Growing chunks of the West’s mountains towns seem to go into deep hibernation for long stretches of the year. Similar clusters are cropping up in places from Bozeman, Mont., to Moab, Utah, and Sedona, Ariz. They are filled with second (and sometimes third or fourth) residences that are only used a few weeks or months out of the year by wealthy owners who really live in Hollywood, Dallas, Chicago or New York. Led by the baby-boom generation, affluent "equity exiles" have plunked down millions for their condos, townhomes and starter castles in paradise. Demographers, elected officials and planners now recognize a new phenomenon: "hollowed-out" communities, to use the phrase coined by Myles Rademan, Park City’s director of public affairs and communication....
Melting glaciers reveal treasures of past Sculptor Bill Ikler was hiking along the edge of a snowfield near the Continental Divide when a friend picked up a cracked, waterlogged, gray-brown chunk of what looked like driftwood. Ikler, who had once studied a bison skull while doing research for one of his sculptures, recognized the 8-inch-long object immediately: It was the bone core from a bison horn. "And then I looked down, and right near my hand was the other core, the other bison horn," he said, recalling the late-summer 2002 hike west of Nederland. "These had just melted out of the snowfield. They were literally pulled from the muck." Samples were sent to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for radiocarbon dating, and the results were surprising. The bison-horn cores were 2,090 years old, said University of Colorado archaeologist Craig Lee....
Bush Uses Market Incentives; Kerry Focuses on Rules Few issues divide President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry more starkly than the environment, where the two men have different approaches on matters ranging from curbing air pollution to promoting energy development on public lands. While Bush has focused on containing regulatory costs and has targeted selected issues, Kerry has advocated stricter federal rules on a wide array of fronts. "It's hard to imagine another case where we've seen a more vivid contrast between the candidates than we see between George Bush and John Kerry on the environment," said Greg Wetstone, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Action Fund, an advocacy and lobbying group....
Proposal Restricts Appeals on Dams The Bush administration has proposed giving dam owners the exclusive right to appeal Interior Department rulings about how dams should be licensed and operated on American rivers, through a little-noticed regulatory tweak that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the hydropower industry. The proposal would prevent states, Indian tribes and environmental groups from making their own appeals, while granting dam owners the opportunity to take their complaints -- and suggested solutions -- directly to senior political appointees in the Interior Department....
Column: Big river, big picture Although the notion of watershed thinking permeates the education of young scientists and natural resource managers, we have forgotten "to think like a watershed" in considering the environmental future of the Colorado River. Watershed thinking envisions all of the opportunities and constraints that exist in a drainage basin. Watershed decisions balance those opportunities and constraints. The need for watershed thinking has become apparent to me in the midst of pursuing a research program concerning management of dams and the restoration of regulated rivers throughout the Intermountain West. My colleagues and I conduct studies downstream from several dams and diversions in the Colorado River basin....
Water deal with Nez Perce Tribe dead in Senate An Idaho effort to resolve one of the West's largest water rights disputes is dead in the U.S. Senate for this year. Senators Larry Craig and Michael Crapo say an anonymous U-S senator has invoked a procedure single-handedly blocking a vote on their water agreement bill. The two say they don't know which of their colleagues is blocking it, and there's no way to find out....
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Zoning power gets on the ballot The war in Iraq and homeland security are dominating the presidential campaign. But measures on ballots Tuesday across the USA show that Americans want to get a handle on issues in their own backyards: sprawl, big-box stores, traffic and the environment. In a number of communities from Florida to California, citizens groups and developers are using ballot referendums to try to wrest control of land-use decisions from local officials. A trend that began in California is picking up steam elsewhere, says Phyllis Myers, president of State Resource Strategies in Washington, D.C., a consulting firm that has tracked state and local ballot measures for more than 10 years. California has pioneered the use of ballot measures to restrict taxes, protect land and manage growth....
Ski village moves forward The Mineral County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved zoning plans for a highly controversial mountaintop village near the Wolf Creek Ski Area in southwestern Colorado. After listening to comments from roughly two dozen speakers at an all-day hearing, the panel voted 3-0 to approve a proposal by Texas billionaire B.J. "Red" McCombs to build what could be the state's largest resort village of its kind....
NPS Retirees: National Park Service Is Hiding Report Calling for More Scientific Approach to Park Management The 353-member Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees (CCNPSR) today publicly called on National Park Service (NPS) Director Fran Mainella to stop stonewalling the release of a major report that urges a more scientific approach to management of America's national parks. The report now being kept under wraps outlines steps for "reducing known shortcomings in past levels of NPS support for using science as a management tool" in order to "ensure the future of the nation's natural heritage that is reflected in the National Park System." According to CCNPSR, the report is being held hostage to the Bush Administration's campaign of ignoring science in order to clear the way for controversial steps -- such as opening up Yellowstone National Park to snowmobiles -- that violate the NPS mission of protecting the resources of the national park system....
LDS Church to pay to lease Martin's Cove The LDS Church will pay $16,000 a year to lease public land surrounding the Martin's Cove Historical Site in Wyoming under a 25-year agreement signed Tuesday with the Bureau of Land Management. Although critics of the lease say they still may file suit, the deal may close a six-year effort by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to acquire the property Mormon faithful consider sacred ground. Although no archaeological evidence has been found, Martin's Cove is believed to be the area where an 1856 blizzard took the lives of an estimated 200 European converts to Mormonism who were traveling to territorial Utah by pulling handcarts across the high plains....
Tribe wins key contract status A company created by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation has landed a contract that makes it a preferred source for up to $100 million in federal projects. Under the Department of Labor's multi-year award, NWB Technology, a subsidiary of tribally-owned NWB Economic Development Corp., will offer information technology services, surveying and mapping, energy consulting, security and surveillance to various federal agencies. In all, the $100 million worth of contracts could generate hundreds of positions, among them internships and on-the-job training slots for the 450 members of the Northwestern Band....
Ancient lands restored to Acoma In the 1870s, federal land surveyors failed to include a portion of Acoma's tribal lands within the reservation's boundaries. The land was then deemed "public land" and patented to the old Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1908. Although surface rights were restored to the pueblo in 1936, it has taken the efforts of five Acoma administrations to realize the restoration of subsurface mineral rights on the lands....
Enviros, BLM spar over Roan Environmental groups attacked plans to drill on the Roan Plateau from a different angle Wednesday by contending that the Bureau of Land Management has grossly exaggerated the amount of natural gas available. A coalition led by the Wilderness Society claimed its analysis of government data shows 400 billion cubic feet of gas could be recovered using technology available today from under the Roan Plateau Planning Area. Earlier studies by the BLM contended that 15.4 trillion cubic feet is beneath the 127,000-acre area....
Dugway seeks to obtain more land Dugway Proving Ground, one of America's largest military bases, has been thinking about growing even larger. It's unclear whether the project is the revival of a 1988 Dugway effort to obtain a swath of public land 23 miles wide by 3 miles long, where chemical and conventional weapons contamination occurred. But what is certain is that two other projects besides the expansion show the military wants stronger action to protect the public from leftover ordinance. Officials of Dugway — the bigger-than-Rhode Island base sprawling across much of Utah's western desert — aren't saying how much they would like it to expand or even why....
Part-Time Paradise It’s the same story from Vail to Telluride, from Park City, Utah, to Sun Valley, Idaho. Growing chunks of the West’s mountains towns seem to go into deep hibernation for long stretches of the year. Similar clusters are cropping up in places from Bozeman, Mont., to Moab, Utah, and Sedona, Ariz. They are filled with second (and sometimes third or fourth) residences that are only used a few weeks or months out of the year by wealthy owners who really live in Hollywood, Dallas, Chicago or New York. Led by the baby-boom generation, affluent "equity exiles" have plunked down millions for their condos, townhomes and starter castles in paradise. Demographers, elected officials and planners now recognize a new phenomenon: "hollowed-out" communities, to use the phrase coined by Myles Rademan, Park City’s director of public affairs and communication....
Melting glaciers reveal treasures of past Sculptor Bill Ikler was hiking along the edge of a snowfield near the Continental Divide when a friend picked up a cracked, waterlogged, gray-brown chunk of what looked like driftwood. Ikler, who had once studied a bison skull while doing research for one of his sculptures, recognized the 8-inch-long object immediately: It was the bone core from a bison horn. "And then I looked down, and right near my hand was the other core, the other bison horn," he said, recalling the late-summer 2002 hike west of Nederland. "These had just melted out of the snowfield. They were literally pulled from the muck." Samples were sent to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for radiocarbon dating, and the results were surprising. The bison-horn cores were 2,090 years old, said University of Colorado archaeologist Craig Lee....
Bush Uses Market Incentives; Kerry Focuses on Rules Few issues divide President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry more starkly than the environment, where the two men have different approaches on matters ranging from curbing air pollution to promoting energy development on public lands. While Bush has focused on containing regulatory costs and has targeted selected issues, Kerry has advocated stricter federal rules on a wide array of fronts. "It's hard to imagine another case where we've seen a more vivid contrast between the candidates than we see between George Bush and John Kerry on the environment," said Greg Wetstone, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Action Fund, an advocacy and lobbying group....
Proposal Restricts Appeals on Dams The Bush administration has proposed giving dam owners the exclusive right to appeal Interior Department rulings about how dams should be licensed and operated on American rivers, through a little-noticed regulatory tweak that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the hydropower industry. The proposal would prevent states, Indian tribes and environmental groups from making their own appeals, while granting dam owners the opportunity to take their complaints -- and suggested solutions -- directly to senior political appointees in the Interior Department....
Column: Big river, big picture Although the notion of watershed thinking permeates the education of young scientists and natural resource managers, we have forgotten "to think like a watershed" in considering the environmental future of the Colorado River. Watershed thinking envisions all of the opportunities and constraints that exist in a drainage basin. Watershed decisions balance those opportunities and constraints. The need for watershed thinking has become apparent to me in the midst of pursuing a research program concerning management of dams and the restoration of regulated rivers throughout the Intermountain West. My colleagues and I conduct studies downstream from several dams and diversions in the Colorado River basin....
Water deal with Nez Perce Tribe dead in Senate An Idaho effort to resolve one of the West's largest water rights disputes is dead in the U.S. Senate for this year. Senators Larry Craig and Michael Crapo say an anonymous U-S senator has invoked a procedure single-handedly blocking a vote on their water agreement bill. The two say they don't know which of their colleagues is blocking it, and there's no way to find out....
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Wednesday, October 27, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Ranchers tell officials of wolf frustrations That frustration was echoed by others in the crowd of about 75 who came to the Stillwater County Fairgrounds on Tuesday to voice concerns about the presence of wolves in the area. The meeting was called on the heels of a wolf attack that killed some sheep near Nye on Oct. 14. "I'm damned disturbed and frustrated," said Cliff Bare, a Stillwater County commissioner. "This is a classic example of government gone astray." Calls have been increasing to Bare's county commission office from people worried about wolves moving onto farms and ranches. "Every year it's getting worse," Bare said. Todd O'Hair, natural resource policy adviser to Gov. Judy Martz, has received the calls, too. Sometimes, the person on the other end is in tears, distraught over the loss of sheep, cows or family pets, he said....
The Man Behind the Land He has given more money to conservation causes in California than anyone else. His gifts have helped protect 1,179 square miles of mountain and desert landscapes, an area the size of Yosemite National Park. His donations to wilderness education programs have made it possible for 437,000 inner-city schoolchildren to visit the mountains, the desert or the beach — often for the first time. Over a decade of steadily growing contributions — including more than $100 million to the Sierra Club — this mathematician turned financial angel has taken great pains to remain anonymous. In manner and appearance, David Gelbaum has maintained a low profile for someone who can afford to give away hundreds of millions of dollars....
Environmentalists sue over changes in wildlife protections Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to block the Bush administra-tion's decision to set aside Reagan-era rules aimed at protecting wildlife in national forests. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks to reinstate a 1982 rule that required the Forest Service to ensure "viable populations" of wildlife species that are not endangered, such as elk, Appala-chian brook trout and river otters. The administration set aside the rule last month, saying officials now can rely on the "best available sci-ence" — a less specific standard — to guide their decisions....
Group wants grand jury to probe Cedar fire A group of county residents has asked federal officials for a grand jury investigation into the cause of last year's Cedar fire, based on the group's allegations that the blaze was reported earlier than officials said it was. The four-page request was delivered Monday to the U.S. Attorney's Office, on the first anniversary of the start of the deadly blaze. The letter, from a group calling itself the Committee for Full Accountability on the Cedar Fire, is signed by four county residents, including two who lost their homes to the flames. Fourteen people died and about 2,200 homes were destroyed by the Cedar fire, which at more than 270,000 acres was deemed the largest wildfire on record in California in terms of acreage burned....
Proposed road closing project sparks objections The Forest Service is planning a project that would put another 40 to 80 miles of roads out of commission -- as much as half of those within the 104,600-acre Steamboat Creek watershed in the northeastern portion of the North Umpqua Ranger District. The project has sparked debate among the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, which takes issue with the agency for not actively involving the public, and for planning a project that will block access for firefighters and future logging or restoration projects....
Groups to sue for protection of trout Conservation groups have given notice that they intend to sue in two months to get the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its decision not to list the westslope cutthroat trout as a threatened species. The groups contend the agency's decision to include crossbred fish in determining the trout did not need protection goes against science and forfeits an opportunity to preserve genetically pure populations. Federal officials said Tuesday that they agree there are far fewer genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout than there are hybrids....
Where to allow grizzlies? Wyoming's grizzly bear management plan says bears will be allowed to expand outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and into areas that are biologically suitable and socially acceptable. It's up to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to pinpoint where those areas will be....
Editorial: Once Gone, Gone Forever Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton insists the Bush administration is committed to protecting the nation's wild lands, but the words of a Bureau of Land Management worker in Price, Utah, tell the real story. "We can protect any landscape that no one wants to use for anything else," Tom Gnojek told The Times' Henry Weinstein. "If it's not wanted by the oil and gas industry or the ORV (off-road vehicle) industry, we can protect it." The administration is giving industry virtual carte blanche to look for oil and gas wherever it wants outside of existing parks and wilderness areas....
U.S. Beef Sales to Japan May Take Months to Resume U.S. beef exporters may take at least six months to begin winning back sales worth $1.7 billion to Japan because of restrictions imposed by the country in agreeing to ease a 10-month import ban, a Tyson Foods Inc. official said. Japan on Oct. 23 agreed to a framework to end the ban, introduced after the discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. Japan's approval process and the need for U.S. exporters to verify the age of their cattle mean little U.S. beef will appear in Japan before spring, said Takamichi Tawara, head of the Tokyo office of Tyson Foods, the world's biggest meat processor....
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Ranchers tell officials of wolf frustrations That frustration was echoed by others in the crowd of about 75 who came to the Stillwater County Fairgrounds on Tuesday to voice concerns about the presence of wolves in the area. The meeting was called on the heels of a wolf attack that killed some sheep near Nye on Oct. 14. "I'm damned disturbed and frustrated," said Cliff Bare, a Stillwater County commissioner. "This is a classic example of government gone astray." Calls have been increasing to Bare's county commission office from people worried about wolves moving onto farms and ranches. "Every year it's getting worse," Bare said. Todd O'Hair, natural resource policy adviser to Gov. Judy Martz, has received the calls, too. Sometimes, the person on the other end is in tears, distraught over the loss of sheep, cows or family pets, he said....
The Man Behind the Land He has given more money to conservation causes in California than anyone else. His gifts have helped protect 1,179 square miles of mountain and desert landscapes, an area the size of Yosemite National Park. His donations to wilderness education programs have made it possible for 437,000 inner-city schoolchildren to visit the mountains, the desert or the beach — often for the first time. Over a decade of steadily growing contributions — including more than $100 million to the Sierra Club — this mathematician turned financial angel has taken great pains to remain anonymous. In manner and appearance, David Gelbaum has maintained a low profile for someone who can afford to give away hundreds of millions of dollars....
Environmentalists sue over changes in wildlife protections Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to block the Bush administra-tion's decision to set aside Reagan-era rules aimed at protecting wildlife in national forests. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks to reinstate a 1982 rule that required the Forest Service to ensure "viable populations" of wildlife species that are not endangered, such as elk, Appala-chian brook trout and river otters. The administration set aside the rule last month, saying officials now can rely on the "best available sci-ence" — a less specific standard — to guide their decisions....
Group wants grand jury to probe Cedar fire A group of county residents has asked federal officials for a grand jury investigation into the cause of last year's Cedar fire, based on the group's allegations that the blaze was reported earlier than officials said it was. The four-page request was delivered Monday to the U.S. Attorney's Office, on the first anniversary of the start of the deadly blaze. The letter, from a group calling itself the Committee for Full Accountability on the Cedar Fire, is signed by four county residents, including two who lost their homes to the flames. Fourteen people died and about 2,200 homes were destroyed by the Cedar fire, which at more than 270,000 acres was deemed the largest wildfire on record in California in terms of acreage burned....
Proposed road closing project sparks objections The Forest Service is planning a project that would put another 40 to 80 miles of roads out of commission -- as much as half of those within the 104,600-acre Steamboat Creek watershed in the northeastern portion of the North Umpqua Ranger District. The project has sparked debate among the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, which takes issue with the agency for not actively involving the public, and for planning a project that will block access for firefighters and future logging or restoration projects....
Groups to sue for protection of trout Conservation groups have given notice that they intend to sue in two months to get the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider its decision not to list the westslope cutthroat trout as a threatened species. The groups contend the agency's decision to include crossbred fish in determining the trout did not need protection goes against science and forfeits an opportunity to preserve genetically pure populations. Federal officials said Tuesday that they agree there are far fewer genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout than there are hybrids....
Where to allow grizzlies? Wyoming's grizzly bear management plan says bears will be allowed to expand outside of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and into areas that are biologically suitable and socially acceptable. It's up to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to pinpoint where those areas will be....
Editorial: Once Gone, Gone Forever Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton insists the Bush administration is committed to protecting the nation's wild lands, but the words of a Bureau of Land Management worker in Price, Utah, tell the real story. "We can protect any landscape that no one wants to use for anything else," Tom Gnojek told The Times' Henry Weinstein. "If it's not wanted by the oil and gas industry or the ORV (off-road vehicle) industry, we can protect it." The administration is giving industry virtual carte blanche to look for oil and gas wherever it wants outside of existing parks and wilderness areas....
U.S. Beef Sales to Japan May Take Months to Resume U.S. beef exporters may take at least six months to begin winning back sales worth $1.7 billion to Japan because of restrictions imposed by the country in agreeing to ease a 10-month import ban, a Tyson Foods Inc. official said. Japan on Oct. 23 agreed to a framework to end the ban, introduced after the discovery of mad cow disease in the U.S. Japan's approval process and the need for U.S. exporters to verify the age of their cattle mean little U.S. beef will appear in Japan before spring, said Takamichi Tawara, head of the Tokyo office of Tyson Foods, the world's biggest meat processor....
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Tuesday, October 26, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Early season avalanche prompts warnings A weekend avalanche in Little Cottonwood Canyon has prompted authorities to warn skiers that it doesn't take much snow to create a slide and that resorts have not yet started their avalanche control. Bruce Tremper, director of the U.S. Forest Service's Utah Avalanche Center, was taking pictures at Alta Ski Area on his day off when the slide triggered about 11:30 a.m. Sunday. The slide was released from Mount Baldy, with a peak elevation of 11,066 feet and 5 feet of snow. An Alta official checked the area and believed no victims were buried under the snow. Normally, the ground should be bare. "This is the earliest snow I can remember in the almost 20 years that I've been here," Tremper said....
Natural gas activist training seeks balance between interests The natural gas industry gives Garfield County residents access to many modern-day conveniences including heating and electricity. There's no denying the usefulness of natural gas - more than 70 percent of U.S. residents use natural gas to heat their homes, according to the 2003 Census Bureau - but concerned residents want to find ways for oil companies to produce natural gas while respecting the environment. That was evident Saturday morning as a group of people from around Colorado attended a gas activist training in Carbondale to learn how to force oil and gas companies to comply with environmental standards....
Report used to justify water transfers called “political science” Late last Friday evening, as is tradition with bad news, the National Marine Fisheries Service (also known as NOAA Fisheries) released a finding that would allow more Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water to be exported from Northern California to Southern California. The finding, known as a biological opinion, determined that the proposed water transfers would not jeopardize the survival of five fish species including the endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, the threatened spring-run Chinook salmon and the threatened Central Valley steelhead. Today, Earthjustice charged that the opinion is politically motivated. The opinion would allow the federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources to send more Delta water to Southern California urban and agricultural water districts despite the impacts on protected native California fish species....
Canola Oil Kills Grasshoppers Raw canola oil can combine with a fungus to get rid of grasshoppers, a researcher says. Stefan Jaronski, who works at the Agricultural Research Service in Sidney, Mont., has found that the raw canola oil has fatty acids that will attract grasshoppers to deadly fungi known as Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae. Jaronski mixed spores of the fungi with the oil, and he found grasshoppers were drawn to plants sprayed with the mixture. They became infected with the fungi while feeding on the sprayed plants, and usually died within a week, he said....
Column: Bush Interior Dept. Pepper Sprays Top Cop Theresa Chambers has become a poster child for the destruction of enduring American institutions. In this case, the National Park Service and the national monuments it protects. Until last July, Theresa Chambers was the U.S. Park Service Chief of Police. She was responsible for security and public safety at U.S. National Parks and Monuments in urban centers, including the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials on the Washington Mall along with many other parks and monuments in the nation's capitol....
Creationism and Science Clash at Grand Canyon Bookstores Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service, is hardly a practitioner of secular humanism. Meals at his house begin with grace, and in a recent talk on environmental politics he chided his audience for not paying enough attention to the way the wonders of nature inspire wonder at their creator. But when it comes to selling, in stores at a national park, a book propounding the idea that God created Grand Canyon in Noah's flood, he pauses. "If there were a person, which I doubt, qualified in geological science, who said it is perfectly plausible, that would be one thing," said Mr. Kennedy, who led the park service from 1993 to 1996. But, he said, such a book would have to have "a respectable scholarly basis." Mr. Kennedy has not seen "Grand Canyon: A Different View," but others who have, including geologists on the Park Service staff, say it does not meet that test....
Stealing from the Sierra, a sky-high page at a time Since 19th-century explorers first scrambled to the top of Sierra Nevada summits, climbers have felt compelled to mark their peak accomplishments in writing. In notebooks, on loose sheets of paper and scraps of Kodak film cartons, they have recorded moments of pure exhilaration, marveled at the knifelike ridges and wind-polished domes, jotted down climbing routes or simply signed their names. But today, those informal archives of achievement, tucked away in sardine cans, glass jars, baking powder tins and even custom-made Sierra Club metal boxes, are vanishing....
Leaching for gold: Some say cyanide leaching mining is safe, some disagree When the now-bankrupt Zortman and Landusky cyanide heap leach gold mines opened in the 1970s, the best minds in science and industry thought cleaning up after them would be a simple affair: Wash off the cyanide, deal with the pit and be done. But they were wrong, according to Warren McCullough, chief of the Department of Environmental Quality's Environmental Management Bureau. What happened next depends on your point of view and is a central issue in the debate over Initiative 147, an effort to repeal the state's ban on cyanide leach mining....
Editorial: Rocky Mountain Politics Interior Secretary Gale Norton has moved aggressively to open up the public lands for oil and gas production, just as Vice President Dick Cheney asked her to do in his 2001 energy report - 6,000 drilling permits in the last fiscal year alone, an all-time record. And while much of this has been unobjectionable, Ms. Norton has not been at all shy about invading environmentally sensitive landscapes that her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, would almost surely have let alone. In recent weeks, however, controversial plans for new drilling in areas of great importance not only to environmentalists but to hunters and anglers who form part of President Bush's core constituency have been shelved until after the election. These include proposals to open up thousands of acres of the fragile Otero Mesa in New Mexico, big chunks of the Roan Plateau in Colorado and the Green River Basin in Wyoming, an already heavily exploited region rich in wildlife and natural gas. (No similar reprieve was granted to Utah, where 40,000 acres were recently auctioned off as part of the Interior Department's colonizing of Utah lands that Mr. Babbitt had protected as potential wilderness.)....
Rustlers running rampant in Jerome County More than 60 calves have been stolen from Jerome County ranchers this summer. And Sheriff Jim Weaver concedes that rustling is out of control. Heifers and bulls are disappearing at about the same rate. Weaver says his deputies are doing all they can. But it's also up to ranchers to take precautions. Too many aren't branding their stock, and Weaver says ranchers need to move pens away from roads and keep them well lit....
It's All Trew: Autos gave new meaning to learning curve The period from 1924 to 1930 might well be named The Transition Era, as everyone of age was trying to learn how to drive the "new-fangled" automobiles. Forgetting life-long habits of yelling "whoa" when you want to stop instead of stepping on the brake took concentration and training. Trails traveled by wagons and buggies for centuries did not lend themselves to the swift-running horseless carriage. This learning period, converting from four-legged horsepower to gasoline power, made for some interesting and classic old Route 66 stories....
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Early season avalanche prompts warnings A weekend avalanche in Little Cottonwood Canyon has prompted authorities to warn skiers that it doesn't take much snow to create a slide and that resorts have not yet started their avalanche control. Bruce Tremper, director of the U.S. Forest Service's Utah Avalanche Center, was taking pictures at Alta Ski Area on his day off when the slide triggered about 11:30 a.m. Sunday. The slide was released from Mount Baldy, with a peak elevation of 11,066 feet and 5 feet of snow. An Alta official checked the area and believed no victims were buried under the snow. Normally, the ground should be bare. "This is the earliest snow I can remember in the almost 20 years that I've been here," Tremper said....
Natural gas activist training seeks balance between interests The natural gas industry gives Garfield County residents access to many modern-day conveniences including heating and electricity. There's no denying the usefulness of natural gas - more than 70 percent of U.S. residents use natural gas to heat their homes, according to the 2003 Census Bureau - but concerned residents want to find ways for oil companies to produce natural gas while respecting the environment. That was evident Saturday morning as a group of people from around Colorado attended a gas activist training in Carbondale to learn how to force oil and gas companies to comply with environmental standards....
Report used to justify water transfers called “political science” Late last Friday evening, as is tradition with bad news, the National Marine Fisheries Service (also known as NOAA Fisheries) released a finding that would allow more Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water to be exported from Northern California to Southern California. The finding, known as a biological opinion, determined that the proposed water transfers would not jeopardize the survival of five fish species including the endangered winter-run Chinook salmon, the threatened spring-run Chinook salmon and the threatened Central Valley steelhead. Today, Earthjustice charged that the opinion is politically motivated. The opinion would allow the federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources to send more Delta water to Southern California urban and agricultural water districts despite the impacts on protected native California fish species....
Canola Oil Kills Grasshoppers Raw canola oil can combine with a fungus to get rid of grasshoppers, a researcher says. Stefan Jaronski, who works at the Agricultural Research Service in Sidney, Mont., has found that the raw canola oil has fatty acids that will attract grasshoppers to deadly fungi known as Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae. Jaronski mixed spores of the fungi with the oil, and he found grasshoppers were drawn to plants sprayed with the mixture. They became infected with the fungi while feeding on the sprayed plants, and usually died within a week, he said....
Column: Bush Interior Dept. Pepper Sprays Top Cop Theresa Chambers has become a poster child for the destruction of enduring American institutions. In this case, the National Park Service and the national monuments it protects. Until last July, Theresa Chambers was the U.S. Park Service Chief of Police. She was responsible for security and public safety at U.S. National Parks and Monuments in urban centers, including the Washington Monument and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials on the Washington Mall along with many other parks and monuments in the nation's capitol....
Creationism and Science Clash at Grand Canyon Bookstores Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service, is hardly a practitioner of secular humanism. Meals at his house begin with grace, and in a recent talk on environmental politics he chided his audience for not paying enough attention to the way the wonders of nature inspire wonder at their creator. But when it comes to selling, in stores at a national park, a book propounding the idea that God created Grand Canyon in Noah's flood, he pauses. "If there were a person, which I doubt, qualified in geological science, who said it is perfectly plausible, that would be one thing," said Mr. Kennedy, who led the park service from 1993 to 1996. But, he said, such a book would have to have "a respectable scholarly basis." Mr. Kennedy has not seen "Grand Canyon: A Different View," but others who have, including geologists on the Park Service staff, say it does not meet that test....
Stealing from the Sierra, a sky-high page at a time Since 19th-century explorers first scrambled to the top of Sierra Nevada summits, climbers have felt compelled to mark their peak accomplishments in writing. In notebooks, on loose sheets of paper and scraps of Kodak film cartons, they have recorded moments of pure exhilaration, marveled at the knifelike ridges and wind-polished domes, jotted down climbing routes or simply signed their names. But today, those informal archives of achievement, tucked away in sardine cans, glass jars, baking powder tins and even custom-made Sierra Club metal boxes, are vanishing....
Leaching for gold: Some say cyanide leaching mining is safe, some disagree When the now-bankrupt Zortman and Landusky cyanide heap leach gold mines opened in the 1970s, the best minds in science and industry thought cleaning up after them would be a simple affair: Wash off the cyanide, deal with the pit and be done. But they were wrong, according to Warren McCullough, chief of the Department of Environmental Quality's Environmental Management Bureau. What happened next depends on your point of view and is a central issue in the debate over Initiative 147, an effort to repeal the state's ban on cyanide leach mining....
Editorial: Rocky Mountain Politics Interior Secretary Gale Norton has moved aggressively to open up the public lands for oil and gas production, just as Vice President Dick Cheney asked her to do in his 2001 energy report - 6,000 drilling permits in the last fiscal year alone, an all-time record. And while much of this has been unobjectionable, Ms. Norton has not been at all shy about invading environmentally sensitive landscapes that her predecessor, Bruce Babbitt, would almost surely have let alone. In recent weeks, however, controversial plans for new drilling in areas of great importance not only to environmentalists but to hunters and anglers who form part of President Bush's core constituency have been shelved until after the election. These include proposals to open up thousands of acres of the fragile Otero Mesa in New Mexico, big chunks of the Roan Plateau in Colorado and the Green River Basin in Wyoming, an already heavily exploited region rich in wildlife and natural gas. (No similar reprieve was granted to Utah, where 40,000 acres were recently auctioned off as part of the Interior Department's colonizing of Utah lands that Mr. Babbitt had protected as potential wilderness.)....
Rustlers running rampant in Jerome County More than 60 calves have been stolen from Jerome County ranchers this summer. And Sheriff Jim Weaver concedes that rustling is out of control. Heifers and bulls are disappearing at about the same rate. Weaver says his deputies are doing all they can. But it's also up to ranchers to take precautions. Too many aren't branding their stock, and Weaver says ranchers need to move pens away from roads and keep them well lit....
It's All Trew: Autos gave new meaning to learning curve The period from 1924 to 1930 might well be named The Transition Era, as everyone of age was trying to learn how to drive the "new-fangled" automobiles. Forgetting life-long habits of yelling "whoa" when you want to stop instead of stepping on the brake took concentration and training. Trails traveled by wagons and buggies for centuries did not lend themselves to the swift-running horseless carriage. This learning period, converting from four-legged horsepower to gasoline power, made for some interesting and classic old Route 66 stories....
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Monday, October 25, 2004
WAYNE HAGE
Rancher's case in judge's hands
RENO - After a dozen years of court battles, rancher Wayne Hage's claim the federal government destroyed his ranching business is now in the hands of a judge.
Final arguments in Hage v. United States were heard Friday before Judge Loren Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Hage lawyer Ladd Bedford of San Francisco told the court the U.S. Forest Service systematically reduced the value of Hage's Pine Creek Ranch in central Nevada by reducing his grazing rights and denying him use of springs and other water sources on public lands.
The government barred Hage from maintaining ditches that brought water for which he has legal rights to the ranch, the lawyer said, rendering most of the ranch unproductive.
Bedford said when Hage bought the ranch for $1.3 million in 1978, he also bought some 17,000 acre-feet of water rights, access to grazing allotments on more than 700,000 acres and use of the springs, wells and improvements on the range. He said Hage and his family were able to make an average of $300,000 a year selling cattle through the 1980s.
Over the course of the battle between Hage and the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, some of Hage's cattle were impounded and his grazing allotments were reduced. He has accused the government of deliberately trying to run him out of business and of violating his property rights in the process.
The government has responded that it managed the land for multiple use - including elk grazing and recreation - and that Hage violated the rules for using the land and maintaining his grazing permits.
Bedford said Hage was forced to sell his herd because of the harassment and restrictions imposed by the government. According to Bedford, the ranch's income dropped to $6,745 in 1992.
"The Hages no longer have an economically viable ranch," he said. "They can't sell it. They can't lease it. They can't make a living off of it."
The reason, according to Bedford, is that the government actions and policies took away the Hage's private property rights.
According to Bedford and attorney Michael Van Zandt, Hage should be compensated for the value of the ranch, its water rights, those grazing allotments and improvements both on private and public lands. They said the value could be as high as $24 million.
But attorney David Spohr of the U.S. Justice Department said that argument is based on a false premise: that the Hages' owned property rights to use of the public lands.
"The issue is not whether actual property rights were taken," he told Judge Smith. "Instead, the issue is whether the rights they wish they had were taken."
He said courts have repeatedly held that Congress has never granted a property right to those who hold grazing permits on public land, despite attempts by Hage's lawyers to "back door a property right to graze on federal lands."
He said that means the Hage's estimates of the value of the ranch are "vastly overstated" because most of the 2,900 animal units they claim the land will support require the use of federal lands.
"There was never a right to graze federal lands, only an implied license."
Judge Smith asked about Hage's complaints federal authorities barred him from maintenance work on ditches across public lands that supplied his ranch with water. Spohr said Hage applied for permits to work on those ditches several times and received them without problems.
He said the Hages got into trouble by "deciding unilaterally they didn't need them."
He said the requirement he get a permit to clear trees and use heavy equipment and do other major work on public lands is reasonable, and that it was Hage, not the government, who chose not to.
He also challenged Hage's claims he could have made $696,000 a year just by leasing grazing rights on the land, saying that is double what Hage was able to make ranching the land himself and more proof that any claim is greatly exaggerated.
That estimate was based on $20 per "animal unit month." The government charges ranchers $1.36 per AUM to graze on public lands.
Judge Smith took the case under submission and is expected to rule before the end of the year.
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Rancher's case in judge's hands
RENO - After a dozen years of court battles, rancher Wayne Hage's claim the federal government destroyed his ranching business is now in the hands of a judge.
Final arguments in Hage v. United States were heard Friday before Judge Loren Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Hage lawyer Ladd Bedford of San Francisco told the court the U.S. Forest Service systematically reduced the value of Hage's Pine Creek Ranch in central Nevada by reducing his grazing rights and denying him use of springs and other water sources on public lands.
The government barred Hage from maintaining ditches that brought water for which he has legal rights to the ranch, the lawyer said, rendering most of the ranch unproductive.
Bedford said when Hage bought the ranch for $1.3 million in 1978, he also bought some 17,000 acre-feet of water rights, access to grazing allotments on more than 700,000 acres and use of the springs, wells and improvements on the range. He said Hage and his family were able to make an average of $300,000 a year selling cattle through the 1980s.
Over the course of the battle between Hage and the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, some of Hage's cattle were impounded and his grazing allotments were reduced. He has accused the government of deliberately trying to run him out of business and of violating his property rights in the process.
The government has responded that it managed the land for multiple use - including elk grazing and recreation - and that Hage violated the rules for using the land and maintaining his grazing permits.
Bedford said Hage was forced to sell his herd because of the harassment and restrictions imposed by the government. According to Bedford, the ranch's income dropped to $6,745 in 1992.
"The Hages no longer have an economically viable ranch," he said. "They can't sell it. They can't lease it. They can't make a living off of it."
The reason, according to Bedford, is that the government actions and policies took away the Hage's private property rights.
According to Bedford and attorney Michael Van Zandt, Hage should be compensated for the value of the ranch, its water rights, those grazing allotments and improvements both on private and public lands. They said the value could be as high as $24 million.
But attorney David Spohr of the U.S. Justice Department said that argument is based on a false premise: that the Hages' owned property rights to use of the public lands.
"The issue is not whether actual property rights were taken," he told Judge Smith. "Instead, the issue is whether the rights they wish they had were taken."
He said courts have repeatedly held that Congress has never granted a property right to those who hold grazing permits on public land, despite attempts by Hage's lawyers to "back door a property right to graze on federal lands."
He said that means the Hage's estimates of the value of the ranch are "vastly overstated" because most of the 2,900 animal units they claim the land will support require the use of federal lands.
"There was never a right to graze federal lands, only an implied license."
Judge Smith asked about Hage's complaints federal authorities barred him from maintenance work on ditches across public lands that supplied his ranch with water. Spohr said Hage applied for permits to work on those ditches several times and received them without problems.
He said the Hages got into trouble by "deciding unilaterally they didn't need them."
He said the requirement he get a permit to clear trees and use heavy equipment and do other major work on public lands is reasonable, and that it was Hage, not the government, who chose not to.
He also challenged Hage's claims he could have made $696,000 a year just by leasing grazing rights on the land, saying that is double what Hage was able to make ranching the land himself and more proof that any claim is greatly exaggerated.
That estimate was based on $20 per "animal unit month." The government charges ranchers $1.36 per AUM to graze on public lands.
Judge Smith took the case under submission and is expected to rule before the end of the year.
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NEWS ROUNDUP
Re-examining effects of salvage logging Ironically, even if the forestservice had fulfilled its obligation to collect extensive population data on management indicator species, it would have been in the context of a densely-vegetated forested environment. Because the environment was dramatically changed by the fire, forest biologists would have still been constrained to drawing conclusions on effects to species largely based on new and wholly altered site conditions. The wildfire was the event significantly affecting wildlife, not the proposed small-scale salvage harvest. The dire consequences that Berman predicted would occur on federal lands as a result of timber salvage operations were not experienced where fire-killed trees were harvested and removed from private property burned in the fire. It is important to question the validity of claims warning of substantial damage that would result from forest management treatments. An important aspect of resource management is to reduce potential resource damage to acceptable levels. A position of zero tolerance for any resource damage would result in nothing ever being done, which of course is the objective of radical preservationists....
Rangers round up Badlands buffalo Although it gets less attention than the Custer State Park bison roundup, the National Park Service conducted a bison roundup of its own at Badlands National Park earlier this month. Rangers and volunteers rounded up 480 bison in the newly completed bison corrals at the park south of Wall during the week of Oct. 10. Animals were tagged, tested for diseases and given an overall physical exam by veterinarians....
Bishop to propose legislation for open space in Deer Valley Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, plans to introduce legislation in the next session of Congress to direct the Bureau of Land Management to sell Park City Municipal Corp. 108 acres of prime Deer Valley real estate to protect as open space. Park City has been negotiating with the federal government for more than 30 years to get title to the Gambel Oak and White Acre parcels, which have remained undeveloped under a public land lease the city struck with the BLM in the early 1970s. But speculation over the potential value of the land for building houses or condominiums, plus the difficulty of settling several unpatented mining claims on the property have thwarted any progress....
Political travel alleged Norton is not alone among Interior Department appointees. Other top federal land managers have focused travel to the nation's political battlegrounds to distribute grant money, hand out awards and spotlight the president's achievements. They have been frequent visitors to the swing states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wisconsin, according to a review of travel schedules, department news releases, speeches, and media reports. Norton is not alone among Interior Department appointees. Other top federal land managers have focused travel to the nation's political battlegrounds to distribute grant money, hand out awards and spotlight the president's achievements. They have been frequent visitors to the swing states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wisconsin, according to a review of travel schedules, department news releases, speeches, and media reports....
Line clear dividing sides on cloud seeding project Officials and proponents of cloud seeding are hoping to increase precipitation, primarily the snowpack, in Big Bear Valley. Clouds would be seeded with silver iodide between December and March. Atmospherics, Inc., the company hired to do the seeding, claims precipitation can increase 5 to 10 percent above the amount that would be normally received. Cloud seeding opponents are not against cloud seeding in general, but contest the use of silver iodide. They claim silver iodide is water soluble in large quantities of water, primarily Big Bear Lake, and will create free ion silver, which is highly toxic....
Utah Farm Leaders Decry Open-Space Ballot Initiative Leaders of Utah's five largest farming organizations are opposing an open-space initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot. Utah Farm Bureau CEO Randy Parker said the Utah Farm Bureau, Utah Wool Growers Association, Utah Cattlemen's Association, Utah Dairymen's Association and Utah Farmers Union believe Initiative 1 bypasses the state Legislature -- the reason Republican legislative leaders came out against it last week. Initiative 1 would preserve open space, clean water and air, build parks and construct government buildings with a $150 million bond financed by an increase in the sales tax of one-twentieth of a cent....
Parade kicks off weekend dedicated to the cowboy life The cowboys hooted and hollered while the ladies in their gingham bonnets waved as 20 chuck wagons rattled up Main Street at lunchtime Friday, en route to the Stockyards and a weekend of events better known as the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering & Western Swing Festival. Except for the occasional wristwatch or cellphone, it could have been a scene from the 1870s because everyone was decked out in period attire. The gathering is a portrayal of a cowboy's life on the trail....
Legendary Western star had strong links to N.D The man called by many film historians “the most popular Western movie actor of all time” was married in North Dakota. This actor also had a number of good friends in Medora and often spent time in the region as a cowpuncher. It is difficult to separate fact from fiction regarding the early life of Tom Mix. Most historians agree on the following: He was born Thomas Hezikiah Mix on Jan. 6, 1880, in a small community near Dubois, Pa....
The romance of a cattle drive, without the cattle As the music plays, dozens of retirees, teachers, farmers and students hoist themselves from beds and sleeping bags to prepare for another day of riding horses and driving wagons on a cattleless cattle drive. Some joined the ride looking to get away, to spend time with friends and family. And some wanted to reconnect with history. They found the old Western Trail, a path that sent 6 million cattle from southern Texas to Kansas starting in the 1870s. The 655-mile trip from Bandera to Dodge City takes about 10 hours by car. By horse, the trip takes 48 days....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Women are the unsung workforce of the cowboy It was a cold, starry night somewhere in West River, Dakotaland. Calving had been under way a couple weeks. Ed and Wanda were already into the heifer-checking routine. On this particular night, Wanda had taken the middle-of-the-night duty. Ed had stayed up late trying to fix a water leak in the barn. Water pipes are buried deep up north. Ed had dug a hole big enough to bury a small mule. Grunt work - frozen ground, mud under the permafrost. He located the break, shut off the main line and called it quits for the night....
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Re-examining effects of salvage logging Ironically, even if the forestservice had fulfilled its obligation to collect extensive population data on management indicator species, it would have been in the context of a densely-vegetated forested environment. Because the environment was dramatically changed by the fire, forest biologists would have still been constrained to drawing conclusions on effects to species largely based on new and wholly altered site conditions. The wildfire was the event significantly affecting wildlife, not the proposed small-scale salvage harvest. The dire consequences that Berman predicted would occur on federal lands as a result of timber salvage operations were not experienced where fire-killed trees were harvested and removed from private property burned in the fire. It is important to question the validity of claims warning of substantial damage that would result from forest management treatments. An important aspect of resource management is to reduce potential resource damage to acceptable levels. A position of zero tolerance for any resource damage would result in nothing ever being done, which of course is the objective of radical preservationists....
Rangers round up Badlands buffalo Although it gets less attention than the Custer State Park bison roundup, the National Park Service conducted a bison roundup of its own at Badlands National Park earlier this month. Rangers and volunteers rounded up 480 bison in the newly completed bison corrals at the park south of Wall during the week of Oct. 10. Animals were tagged, tested for diseases and given an overall physical exam by veterinarians....
Bishop to propose legislation for open space in Deer Valley Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, plans to introduce legislation in the next session of Congress to direct the Bureau of Land Management to sell Park City Municipal Corp. 108 acres of prime Deer Valley real estate to protect as open space. Park City has been negotiating with the federal government for more than 30 years to get title to the Gambel Oak and White Acre parcels, which have remained undeveloped under a public land lease the city struck with the BLM in the early 1970s. But speculation over the potential value of the land for building houses or condominiums, plus the difficulty of settling several unpatented mining claims on the property have thwarted any progress....
Political travel alleged Norton is not alone among Interior Department appointees. Other top federal land managers have focused travel to the nation's political battlegrounds to distribute grant money, hand out awards and spotlight the president's achievements. They have been frequent visitors to the swing states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wisconsin, according to a review of travel schedules, department news releases, speeches, and media reports. Norton is not alone among Interior Department appointees. Other top federal land managers have focused travel to the nation's political battlegrounds to distribute grant money, hand out awards and spotlight the president's achievements. They have been frequent visitors to the swing states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Wisconsin, according to a review of travel schedules, department news releases, speeches, and media reports....
Line clear dividing sides on cloud seeding project Officials and proponents of cloud seeding are hoping to increase precipitation, primarily the snowpack, in Big Bear Valley. Clouds would be seeded with silver iodide between December and March. Atmospherics, Inc., the company hired to do the seeding, claims precipitation can increase 5 to 10 percent above the amount that would be normally received. Cloud seeding opponents are not against cloud seeding in general, but contest the use of silver iodide. They claim silver iodide is water soluble in large quantities of water, primarily Big Bear Lake, and will create free ion silver, which is highly toxic....
Utah Farm Leaders Decry Open-Space Ballot Initiative Leaders of Utah's five largest farming organizations are opposing an open-space initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot. Utah Farm Bureau CEO Randy Parker said the Utah Farm Bureau, Utah Wool Growers Association, Utah Cattlemen's Association, Utah Dairymen's Association and Utah Farmers Union believe Initiative 1 bypasses the state Legislature -- the reason Republican legislative leaders came out against it last week. Initiative 1 would preserve open space, clean water and air, build parks and construct government buildings with a $150 million bond financed by an increase in the sales tax of one-twentieth of a cent....
Parade kicks off weekend dedicated to the cowboy life The cowboys hooted and hollered while the ladies in their gingham bonnets waved as 20 chuck wagons rattled up Main Street at lunchtime Friday, en route to the Stockyards and a weekend of events better known as the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering & Western Swing Festival. Except for the occasional wristwatch or cellphone, it could have been a scene from the 1870s because everyone was decked out in period attire. The gathering is a portrayal of a cowboy's life on the trail....
Legendary Western star had strong links to N.D The man called by many film historians “the most popular Western movie actor of all time” was married in North Dakota. This actor also had a number of good friends in Medora and often spent time in the region as a cowpuncher. It is difficult to separate fact from fiction regarding the early life of Tom Mix. Most historians agree on the following: He was born Thomas Hezikiah Mix on Jan. 6, 1880, in a small community near Dubois, Pa....
The romance of a cattle drive, without the cattle As the music plays, dozens of retirees, teachers, farmers and students hoist themselves from beds and sleeping bags to prepare for another day of riding horses and driving wagons on a cattleless cattle drive. Some joined the ride looking to get away, to spend time with friends and family. And some wanted to reconnect with history. They found the old Western Trail, a path that sent 6 million cattle from southern Texas to Kansas starting in the 1870s. The 655-mile trip from Bandera to Dodge City takes about 10 hours by car. By horse, the trip takes 48 days....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Women are the unsung workforce of the cowboy It was a cold, starry night somewhere in West River, Dakotaland. Calving had been under way a couple weeks. Ed and Wanda were already into the heifer-checking routine. On this particular night, Wanda had taken the middle-of-the-night duty. Ed had stayed up late trying to fix a water leak in the barn. Water pipes are buried deep up north. Ed had dug a hole big enough to bury a small mule. Grunt work - frozen ground, mud under the permafrost. He located the break, shut off the main line and called it quits for the night....
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Sunday, October 24, 2004
OPINION/COMMENTARY
"Unendangered Species" Added To Endangered Species List
The US Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the addition of 37 new populations to the endangered species list. Among them were four varieties of salmon, five populations of bear, and the common snipe. Still, perhaps the most surprising addition to the list was Unendangered Species. "It was only a matter of time," explained US Fish and Wildlife spokesman Trey Haggart, "Ever since Unendangered Species went on the threatened species list last year, we've had our eye on them. While there may be enough of them that they aren't going to become extinct in the immediate future, their numbers have been dwindling every year, and it was enough to catch our attention." With the addition of 2,000 more species to the worldwide endangered species list in 2003, officials decided that the resultant drop in Unendangered Species population merited their addition to the threatened species list....funny satire, but sad too.
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"Unendangered Species" Added To Endangered Species List
The US Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the addition of 37 new populations to the endangered species list. Among them were four varieties of salmon, five populations of bear, and the common snipe. Still, perhaps the most surprising addition to the list was Unendangered Species. "It was only a matter of time," explained US Fish and Wildlife spokesman Trey Haggart, "Ever since Unendangered Species went on the threatened species list last year, we've had our eye on them. While there may be enough of them that they aren't going to become extinct in the immediate future, their numbers have been dwindling every year, and it was enough to catch our attention." With the addition of 2,000 more species to the worldwide endangered species list in 2003, officials decided that the resultant drop in Unendangered Species population merited their addition to the threatened species list....funny satire, but sad too.
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
New Approach To Water Problems
Water fights are not new to Texas; since before the Lone Star State joined the Union, water rights have been bartered, litigated, fought over, bought and sold for years, and are as contentious today as they have ever been. But a new study from the Texas Public Policy Foundation finds an emerging technology might alleviate those fights in the future. The study, “Hold The Salt: The Promise Of Desalination For Texas,” was written by James Smith, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University. This report succinctly explores the opportunities and costs of desalination. Smith notes that if the technology is to be used to the greatest extent possible, it will have to happen as a result of public water works allowing the private sector to have an enhanced role in the design, construction, operations and maintenance, and financing of desalination facilities....
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New Approach To Water Problems
Water fights are not new to Texas; since before the Lone Star State joined the Union, water rights have been bartered, litigated, fought over, bought and sold for years, and are as contentious today as they have ever been. But a new study from the Texas Public Policy Foundation finds an emerging technology might alleviate those fights in the future. The study, “Hold The Salt: The Promise Of Desalination For Texas,” was written by James Smith, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University. This report succinctly explores the opportunities and costs of desalination. Smith notes that if the technology is to be used to the greatest extent possible, it will have to happen as a result of public water works allowing the private sector to have an enhanced role in the design, construction, operations and maintenance, and financing of desalination facilities....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Kerry’s Energy Plan Fails to Match the President’s for Helping Consumers
Let’s be clear; neither candidate has an energy plan to lead America to energy independence. Energy independence is a myth. Like everything else in this age of globalization, energy is bought and sold on the world market and that is not going to change. Moreover, estimates indicate that during the next 20 years, U.S. oil consumption will grow by one-third and electricity demand could increase by more than 45 percent. Having said this, the comprehensive energy plan that President Bush put forward early in his administration clearly does more to secure future supplies of affordable energy than candidate Kerry’s recently announced energy plan. The Bush administration laid out 105 recommendations, 42 of which encouraged conservation and environmental protection, while 35 of the recommendations dealt with diversifying the U.S. energy supply and modernizing our antiquated electric and natural gas delivery systems. The plan was not perfect; no plan would be. However, it was comprehensive and the proposals did not contradict each other....
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Kerry’s Energy Plan Fails to Match the President’s for Helping Consumers
Let’s be clear; neither candidate has an energy plan to lead America to energy independence. Energy independence is a myth. Like everything else in this age of globalization, energy is bought and sold on the world market and that is not going to change. Moreover, estimates indicate that during the next 20 years, U.S. oil consumption will grow by one-third and electricity demand could increase by more than 45 percent. Having said this, the comprehensive energy plan that President Bush put forward early in his administration clearly does more to secure future supplies of affordable energy than candidate Kerry’s recently announced energy plan. The Bush administration laid out 105 recommendations, 42 of which encouraged conservation and environmental protection, while 35 of the recommendations dealt with diversifying the U.S. energy supply and modernizing our antiquated electric and natural gas delivery systems. The plan was not perfect; no plan would be. However, it was comprehensive and the proposals did not contradict each other....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
DEVELOPERS EYEING RESERVATIONS
American Indian reservations are getting an economic boost from an unlikely source: sprawl. With land hard to come by in some municipalities, developers are eyeing reservations because of their lower tax rates and lack of red tape. Perhaps most importantly, many tribes have also revised their political and legal institutions, making them virtually no different than working with any other municipality, says the Wall Street Journal.
Renting out land to investors has been a boon to tribal governments and communities, providing employment opportunities for members and bolstering the incomes of the elderly landlords, many of whom don’t have pension funds. According to the Journal:
---Nationwide, leases on tribal land and land owned by tribal members generated about $42 million in 2003, up from nearly $28 million in 2000.
---The tribes in Arizona alone generated nearly $21 million in income from leases in 2003.
The land that makes up the 331 reservations in the United States is owned by 567 federally recognized tribes or individual American Indians. However, the 55 million acres held in trust by the U.S. government for Indian tribes cannot be sold to non-tribal entities, meaning outside companies must lease the land from landowners.
Source: Sheila Muto, “Development Grows at Indian Reservations,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2004.
For Journal text (subscription required) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109702029517137359-search,00.html
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DEVELOPERS EYEING RESERVATIONS
American Indian reservations are getting an economic boost from an unlikely source: sprawl. With land hard to come by in some municipalities, developers are eyeing reservations because of their lower tax rates and lack of red tape. Perhaps most importantly, many tribes have also revised their political and legal institutions, making them virtually no different than working with any other municipality, says the Wall Street Journal.
Renting out land to investors has been a boon to tribal governments and communities, providing employment opportunities for members and bolstering the incomes of the elderly landlords, many of whom don’t have pension funds. According to the Journal:
---Nationwide, leases on tribal land and land owned by tribal members generated about $42 million in 2003, up from nearly $28 million in 2000.
---The tribes in Arizona alone generated nearly $21 million in income from leases in 2003.
The land that makes up the 331 reservations in the United States is owned by 567 federally recognized tribes or individual American Indians. However, the 55 million acres held in trust by the U.S. government for Indian tribes cannot be sold to non-tribal entities, meaning outside companies must lease the land from landowners.
Source: Sheila Muto, “Development Grows at Indian Reservations,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2004.
For Journal text (subscription required) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109702029517137359-search,00.html
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Election 2004: The Missing Green Vote
Despite an unprecedented united effort from the nation’s leading environmental activist groups, the environment will have no significant impact in this year’s election for the White House, according to analysts with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). “While polls consistently show most people consider themselves environmentalists, they also consistently rank the environment lower than almost every other issue,” said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. “And because the environment is not a critical issue for swing voters, the candidates haven’t spent a lot of time discussing it.” According to the NCPA, the leadership of dedicated environmental lobbying organizations are among the most partisan Democrat interest groups in the nation....
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Election 2004: The Missing Green Vote
Despite an unprecedented united effort from the nation’s leading environmental activist groups, the environment will have no significant impact in this year’s election for the White House, according to analysts with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). “While polls consistently show most people consider themselves environmentalists, they also consistently rank the environment lower than almost every other issue,” said NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett. “And because the environment is not a critical issue for swing voters, the candidates haven’t spent a lot of time discussing it.” According to the NCPA, the leadership of dedicated environmental lobbying organizations are among the most partisan Democrat interest groups in the nation....
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