Saturday, November 13, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
'Radical Center' Tries To Shield Ranch Land Studying the restorative effects of fire is one of several ecological projects designed by the nonprofit Malpai Borderlands Group, which was founded in 1994 by McDonald and other local ranchers who felt threatened by government regulation and widespread subdivision of Arizona rangeland. The group is in the vanguard of a growing movement in the West -- the formation of rancher-based land trusts that buy and hold conservation easements to protect ranch land from development. The loosely structured group now consists of ranchers, government regulators, conservationists, scientists and environmentalists working to find out how best to restore, protect and maintain a delicate habitat while supporting profitable ranching. The group strives for consensus and has been successful enough that this unlikely convergence of divergent interests has fostered cooperative ecological studies of fire, grassland restoration, erosion control and innovative compliance with the Endangered Species Act....
Man fined for removing Forest Service boundary markers Ketchum man is learning the hard way not to mess with the U.S. Forest Service. A U.S. Magistrate Judge found Monty Straley guilty on two misdemeanors for illegally removing boundary markers that separated his property from Sawtooth National Forest land and for interfering with a Forest Service boundary marking project, according to a statement released Friday by the U.S. Attorney District of Idaho. When crews conducted survey work in the Ketchum area in 2003, they placed markers to distinguish the line between Straley's private property and public lands. Straley removed the fiberglass posts and threatened to get rid of additionally installed markers if the originals were replaced....
Governor opposes proposed roadless rule revision Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Friday sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service opposing a Bush administration proposal to ease a 2001 rule that protects roadless areas on federal land. The Democratic governor said the Republican proposal "will break up the integrity of the forest ecosystem of large contiguous roadless areas, which in turn, will lead to severe environmental damage to these sensitive areas."....
GOP plans to revise species protections Despite winning the White House and bigger majorities in Congress, Republicans have mapped out a limited agenda of forestry legislation for the 109th Congress, but they do plan changes to the Endangered Species Act. Among the measures to be considered by the Resources Committee is a plan by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to create a panel of scientists to review data that regulators use to design plans to protect endangered species....
Snowmobile plan draws 2 more challenges Two more legal challenges have been filed to the National Park Service's plan to allow snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks for the next three winters. The latest action came Friday from conservation groups. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and others are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to order the Park Service to do the monitoring and "adaptive management" necessary to protect the park and its resources. Friday's action followed a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association. It claims the federal government failed to provide a "reasoned explanation" for its decision requiring guided trips in Yellowstone and limiting the number of snowmobiles...
BLM denies Nevada mine cover-up Bureau of Land Management officials insisted Friday there's "no cover-up" at a polluted Nevada mine and blamed cleanup delays on the ex-project manager who filed a federal whistleblower complaint. A lawyer for whistleblower Earle Dixon said the environmental specialist was fired by bureaucrats who "shot the messenger" rather than respond to his concerns about radioactive materials and other toxic wastes at the former Anaconda copper mine near Yerington in northern Nevada....
Salt wells blamed as cause of quake An earthquake near the Colorado-Utah border Saturday night might have been caused by a government agency injecting brine 14,000 feet into the earth. “We have a seismic network set up for measuring and recording any events associated with the injection process, and it appears this earthquake was one probably associated with that process,” said Andy Nichols, manager of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation facility that injects 230 gallons of salt per minute into deep wells in the Paradox Valley Area....
Flood to build Canyon beaches Federal scientists hope to flood the Grand Canyon for about four days later this month in a second attempt to restore some of the beaches and habitat lost when the Colorado River was dammed four decades ago. Under a plan outlined this week for public comment, the Bureau of Reclamation would create the artificial flood by releasing extra water from Glen Canyon Dam. The river would swell to nearly five times its normal flow at the peak of the experiment. The intent is to use the water to move tons of sand and sediment downstream to the upper reaches of the Grand Canyon, rebuilding some of the beaches eroded over time....
New brucellosis case hits Teton County Four animals in a Teton County cattle herd tested positive for the brucellosis antibody, officials announced this week, requiring the state to start the clock again to obtain brucellosis-free status. The four animals were in two different herds on one ranch in Teton County. Two animals from a purebred herd that grazes on the ranch tested positive for the disease, and culture results this week confirmed earlier tests....
Shoshone celebrates the Old West Shoshone, Calif., gives the impression of teetering on the edge of the known civilized world, whether you come there from the California or the Nevada side. It's usually eerily tranquil under the shade of the lined cottonwoods and scattered date palms in front of the old Shoshone Museum. You half expect to see a dog awaking from his nap in the middle of the highway running through town. But this weekend the quiet oasis village just south of Death Valley and north of the Old Spanish Trail sprung to life with outbursts of six-shooter gunfire from rowdy "cowboys." Gentler folk played foot-stomping bluegrass music while couples took to the patio for country-western swing dancing. Crafts people sold their artistic wares, cowboy poets recited homegrown desert lyrics and regional historians spun yarns of Old Western trails and newer ones, too, most of the tales at least partly true....
Requiem for a maverick The dead man's friends wrapped his ashes in a black bandanna, fastened it with a hackamore knot and carried it to the top of a low hill overlooking the breaks of the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. They set their burden on the grass. Six cowboys lounged horseback beside it while some of the dozen or so people spoke of the dead man or said poems or sang songs to the music of fiddles and guitars. Then Rooster Morris, foreman of Spring Creek Ranch, where they were, stepped down from his stirrups and picked up the bandanna. He remounted and rode slowly down the grassy slope, cradling the dead man's ashes....
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'Radical Center' Tries To Shield Ranch Land Studying the restorative effects of fire is one of several ecological projects designed by the nonprofit Malpai Borderlands Group, which was founded in 1994 by McDonald and other local ranchers who felt threatened by government regulation and widespread subdivision of Arizona rangeland. The group is in the vanguard of a growing movement in the West -- the formation of rancher-based land trusts that buy and hold conservation easements to protect ranch land from development. The loosely structured group now consists of ranchers, government regulators, conservationists, scientists and environmentalists working to find out how best to restore, protect and maintain a delicate habitat while supporting profitable ranching. The group strives for consensus and has been successful enough that this unlikely convergence of divergent interests has fostered cooperative ecological studies of fire, grassland restoration, erosion control and innovative compliance with the Endangered Species Act....
Man fined for removing Forest Service boundary markers Ketchum man is learning the hard way not to mess with the U.S. Forest Service. A U.S. Magistrate Judge found Monty Straley guilty on two misdemeanors for illegally removing boundary markers that separated his property from Sawtooth National Forest land and for interfering with a Forest Service boundary marking project, according to a statement released Friday by the U.S. Attorney District of Idaho. When crews conducted survey work in the Ketchum area in 2003, they placed markers to distinguish the line between Straley's private property and public lands. Straley removed the fiberglass posts and threatened to get rid of additionally installed markers if the originals were replaced....
Governor opposes proposed roadless rule revision Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Friday sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service opposing a Bush administration proposal to ease a 2001 rule that protects roadless areas on federal land. The Democratic governor said the Republican proposal "will break up the integrity of the forest ecosystem of large contiguous roadless areas, which in turn, will lead to severe environmental damage to these sensitive areas."....
GOP plans to revise species protections Despite winning the White House and bigger majorities in Congress, Republicans have mapped out a limited agenda of forestry legislation for the 109th Congress, but they do plan changes to the Endangered Species Act. Among the measures to be considered by the Resources Committee is a plan by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to create a panel of scientists to review data that regulators use to design plans to protect endangered species....
Snowmobile plan draws 2 more challenges Two more legal challenges have been filed to the National Park Service's plan to allow snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks for the next three winters. The latest action came Friday from conservation groups. The Greater Yellowstone Coalition and others are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to order the Park Service to do the monitoring and "adaptive management" necessary to protect the park and its resources. Friday's action followed a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association. It claims the federal government failed to provide a "reasoned explanation" for its decision requiring guided trips in Yellowstone and limiting the number of snowmobiles...
BLM denies Nevada mine cover-up Bureau of Land Management officials insisted Friday there's "no cover-up" at a polluted Nevada mine and blamed cleanup delays on the ex-project manager who filed a federal whistleblower complaint. A lawyer for whistleblower Earle Dixon said the environmental specialist was fired by bureaucrats who "shot the messenger" rather than respond to his concerns about radioactive materials and other toxic wastes at the former Anaconda copper mine near Yerington in northern Nevada....
Salt wells blamed as cause of quake An earthquake near the Colorado-Utah border Saturday night might have been caused by a government agency injecting brine 14,000 feet into the earth. “We have a seismic network set up for measuring and recording any events associated with the injection process, and it appears this earthquake was one probably associated with that process,” said Andy Nichols, manager of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation facility that injects 230 gallons of salt per minute into deep wells in the Paradox Valley Area....
Flood to build Canyon beaches Federal scientists hope to flood the Grand Canyon for about four days later this month in a second attempt to restore some of the beaches and habitat lost when the Colorado River was dammed four decades ago. Under a plan outlined this week for public comment, the Bureau of Reclamation would create the artificial flood by releasing extra water from Glen Canyon Dam. The river would swell to nearly five times its normal flow at the peak of the experiment. The intent is to use the water to move tons of sand and sediment downstream to the upper reaches of the Grand Canyon, rebuilding some of the beaches eroded over time....
New brucellosis case hits Teton County Four animals in a Teton County cattle herd tested positive for the brucellosis antibody, officials announced this week, requiring the state to start the clock again to obtain brucellosis-free status. The four animals were in two different herds on one ranch in Teton County. Two animals from a purebred herd that grazes on the ranch tested positive for the disease, and culture results this week confirmed earlier tests....
Shoshone celebrates the Old West Shoshone, Calif., gives the impression of teetering on the edge of the known civilized world, whether you come there from the California or the Nevada side. It's usually eerily tranquil under the shade of the lined cottonwoods and scattered date palms in front of the old Shoshone Museum. You half expect to see a dog awaking from his nap in the middle of the highway running through town. But this weekend the quiet oasis village just south of Death Valley and north of the Old Spanish Trail sprung to life with outbursts of six-shooter gunfire from rowdy "cowboys." Gentler folk played foot-stomping bluegrass music while couples took to the patio for country-western swing dancing. Crafts people sold their artistic wares, cowboy poets recited homegrown desert lyrics and regional historians spun yarns of Old Western trails and newer ones, too, most of the tales at least partly true....
Requiem for a maverick The dead man's friends wrapped his ashes in a black bandanna, fastened it with a hackamore knot and carried it to the top of a low hill overlooking the breaks of the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. They set their burden on the grass. Six cowboys lounged horseback beside it while some of the dozen or so people spoke of the dead man or said poems or sang songs to the music of fiddles and guitars. Then Rooster Morris, foreman of Spring Creek Ranch, where they were, stepped down from his stirrups and picked up the bandanna. He remounted and rode slowly down the grassy slope, cradling the dead man's ashes....
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Friday, November 12, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Snowmobile letters by Pombo criticized Tracy Republican Richard Pombo's use of taxpayer-financed mail has drawn a formal complaint from environmentally minded lawyers. In a Capitol Hill filing, two Midwestern attorneys contend that Pombo violated House rules with an overtly partisan mailing too close to the Nov. 2 election. The mailing — to about 166,000 Midwestern snowmobilers — improperly exploited public funds on behalf of Republican campaign efforts, they said....
Panel to review split-estate bill Surface owner protection advocates and lawmakers who support them are confident the third version of a split-estate bill will pass this time. It will be reviewed by the Joint Judiciary Committee today in Lander. The legislation is intended to give surface owners with no rights to the oil and gas below their land more say in how those minerals are developed. The three main elements of the bill are a notification standard, a requirement for cooperative planning and "loss of value" compensation to the landowner....
Shell studies how to extract oil from shale, cut U.S. dependence A stretch of private land 200 miles west of Denver is home to an ambitious research project that - if successful - could reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil. Energy giant Shell Oil Co., which owns the property, is using it for an experimental technology to extract oil from shale formations. Although the project, called Mahogany, was rejuvenated four years ago, the company says it will be early in the next decade before it makes a commercial decision. Shell is not alone. A host of energy companies are revisiting technologies to recover shale oil, plans placed on the back burner 30 years ago because of extremely high capital costs. But now they're seen as viable alternatives to buying pricey foreign crude oil....
Superior sitting on copper fortune The old Arizona mining town of Superior has felt more bust than boom over the past decade, but a deep-pocketed British corporation wants to revive the area's glory days with a $2 billion mining investment. Resolution Copper Co., a subsidiary of British mining giant Rio Tinto, found a huge underground ore body that sits more than 7,000 feet below the surface. Rio Tinto's top brass, including Chief Executive Officer Leigh Clifford, told Gov. Janet Napolitano this week that they will spend at least $200 million over the next five years to tap into the copper body and make the project work. Getting at the copper could cost more than $2 billion, an investment the British company is willing to make for its payoff down the road....
Drilling approved on Grass Mesa EnCana Oil and Gas has received permission to drill as many as 100 natural-gas wells on 9,792 acres in the Grass Mesa area south of Rifle during the next few years. The Bureau of Land Management’s Glenwood Springs Field Office approved a geographic area plan and environmental assessment for the area last week. The plan was submitted to the BLM about a year ago. It calls for six wells to be directionally drilled from one current well pad and 94 wells from 16 new well pads. More than 40 percent, or 4,065 acres, are BLM lands ,and nearly 60 percent, 5,725 acres, are privately owned....
Public asks questions about oil, gas leases
While the public was invited to comment on 12 specific oil and gas leases in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, many at a Wednesday meeting wanted the facts about all possible exploration in the 377,000-acre monument. Because of a recent federal court decision, the Bureau of Land Management is asking the public to comment on 12 existing oil and gas leases in the national monument. The leases cover about 10,000 acres....
Fur seal population in decline Northern fur seal moms whelped fewer pups on Pribilof Island beaches last summer than at any time since 1921, according to a preliminary population report released this week by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory. Overall pup counts have been dropping almost 6 percent each year since 1998, to an estimated 153,000 this year. This trend compounds a mysterious decline in the herd that has continued off and on for at least 30 years....
Research continues on Preble's jumping mouse A new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is identical to another subspecies of jumping mouse, bolstering Wyoming's argument that the mouse be removed from the endangered species list, according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office. The report released last week is in addition to a study last year that found the Preble's to be genetically identical to another mouse. "The Fish and Wildlife Service should be applauded for its efforts to seek the best science on the Preble's," Freudenthal said in a statement Wednesday. "Scrutiny of the science used to list the mouse in the first place has been extremely intense, and with good reason. My hope is that the recent efforts by the Service mark a shift in the way listing decisions will be made in the future."....
U.S. officials kill wolf pup near Roscoe The days appear numbered for a new wolf pack in the Roscoe area. Government agents shot a wolf pup Thursday after receiving reports of livestock losses this spring and summer. About 40 sheep and a half-dozen calves were killed, he said. And it appears most of the depredation is tied to these wolves, Bangs said. The calves belonged to several landowners but the sheep all belonged to one landowner....
Environmentalists intend to sue over sharp-tailed grouse A coalition of environmental groups plans to sue the federal government over its failure to list the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse as an endangered species. Led by the Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians, the groups on Thursday sent out a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The notice went to Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other officials. Sizable populations of the grouse are in Idaho and Colorado. The rest of the bird's current range comprises south-central Wyoming, northern Utah, northeastern Nevada, northern Washington and central British Columbia, according to the environmental groups....
Ten Years of Wolves in Yellowstone & Idaho Defenders of Wildlife is kicking-off the ten year anniversary of wolves in Yellowstone and Idaho by issuing its first State of the Wolf report. The study provides a snapshot in time of the ongoing recovery of the wolf nationwide and the threats that still jeopardize the future of these majestic creatures. The report examines gray wolves in 7 regions: Northern Rockies, Pacific Northwest, Southwest United States and Mexico, Southern Rockies, Great Lakes, Northeast and Alaska....Go here(pdf) to view the report.
Removal of Yosemite Dam to Be Studied Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's resources secretary has directed his agency to study possible restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, giving an unexpected official boost to the controversial idea of dismantling the dam that has been integral to the Bay Area's water supply for more than 80 years. Mike Chrisman's decision came at the request of Assembly members Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), and less than two months after the nonprofit group Environmental Defense released a study detailing possible alternatives to the Bay Area's sources of drinking water and hydroelectric power....
Groups claim win over BLM A pair of environmental groups have notched what they call a significant victory over the Bureau of Land Management in an ongoing battle over the sale of oil and gas leases in the state. The Department of Interior's Board of Land Appeals late Wednesday ruled in favor of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council, overturning the BLM's March 2002 decision to lease about 26,000 acres of public land in the Utah backcountry for oil and gas exploration. The two groups have lodged their complaints over what they describe as the BLM's failure to identify and inventory "cultural resources" such as archaeological sites and ancient cliff dwellings before selling the leases. They also accused the agency of failing to consult with American Indian tribes and other members of the public prior to the lease sales. Both are requirements under the National Historic Preservation Act....
Rainwater harvesting once common, needed again to promote conservation Remember Butch Cassidy and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”? Well, grab those raindrops when they fall! Who knows when it will rain again, as we have seen over and over here in West Texas. Rainwater is a free source of nearly pure water and too valuable to waste. For thousands of years, the world has relied upon rainwater harvesting (RWH) to supply water for household, landscape and agricultural uses. Before city water systems were developed, rainwater was collected (mostly from roofs) and stored in cisterns or storage tanks....
Election serves as whack upside the head for environmental community The Bush victory dealt a devastating wallop to the environmental community, but some members say it also delivered a much-needed reality check to a movement struggling to find its soul. Understandably, many environmental leaders who jumped into the election fray insist their crusade to mobilize the green vote could not have been harder fought: Beltway groups raised record funds -- in total more than $12 million -- to help oust Bush, and deployed bigger volunteer armies than ever before to pound the pavement in swing states....
Pilot project to track, ID cattle in 7 states A voluntary pilot program geared at tracking and identifying cattle in seven Western states should be up and running in the next two weeks, organizers of the program said yesterday. Northwest beef-industry leaders announced plans in May to implement a pilot animal-identification system. The goal is to meet a new requirement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture ensuring that a diseased animal or tainted meat can be traced within 48 hours. The ability to trace livestock became crucial after the discovery of the nation's first case of mad-cow disease in a Washington state Holstein late last year....
Tumbling tumbleweeds I learned that there are five species of tumbleweeds in the United States. The Common Tumbleweed, a member of the Amaranth family, is native and is abundant in arid regions from Canada to Mexico. It is found in nearly every state and commonly grows in dry sandy soils on railroad embankments, road sides, gravel pits and waste places. The worst of the tumbleweeds is the Russian thistle, which is not really a thistle but a member of the Goosefoot family. It is sometimes called the Prairie Tumbleweed and hitchhiked into the United States during the last century in grain imported from Russia. Its stems form a loose globe up to 4 feet in diameter. Its long, thin, spine-tipped leaves and spines give it a bristly appearance. When young and green, it can be eaten by cattle, but when it is mature it is like cactus. It thrives on land too dry for most plants and is the last survivor in drought years. It sometimes appears in a brilliant reddish color in autumn....
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Snowmobile letters by Pombo criticized Tracy Republican Richard Pombo's use of taxpayer-financed mail has drawn a formal complaint from environmentally minded lawyers. In a Capitol Hill filing, two Midwestern attorneys contend that Pombo violated House rules with an overtly partisan mailing too close to the Nov. 2 election. The mailing — to about 166,000 Midwestern snowmobilers — improperly exploited public funds on behalf of Republican campaign efforts, they said....
Panel to review split-estate bill Surface owner protection advocates and lawmakers who support them are confident the third version of a split-estate bill will pass this time. It will be reviewed by the Joint Judiciary Committee today in Lander. The legislation is intended to give surface owners with no rights to the oil and gas below their land more say in how those minerals are developed. The three main elements of the bill are a notification standard, a requirement for cooperative planning and "loss of value" compensation to the landowner....
Shell studies how to extract oil from shale, cut U.S. dependence A stretch of private land 200 miles west of Denver is home to an ambitious research project that - if successful - could reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil. Energy giant Shell Oil Co., which owns the property, is using it for an experimental technology to extract oil from shale formations. Although the project, called Mahogany, was rejuvenated four years ago, the company says it will be early in the next decade before it makes a commercial decision. Shell is not alone. A host of energy companies are revisiting technologies to recover shale oil, plans placed on the back burner 30 years ago because of extremely high capital costs. But now they're seen as viable alternatives to buying pricey foreign crude oil....
Superior sitting on copper fortune The old Arizona mining town of Superior has felt more bust than boom over the past decade, but a deep-pocketed British corporation wants to revive the area's glory days with a $2 billion mining investment. Resolution Copper Co., a subsidiary of British mining giant Rio Tinto, found a huge underground ore body that sits more than 7,000 feet below the surface. Rio Tinto's top brass, including Chief Executive Officer Leigh Clifford, told Gov. Janet Napolitano this week that they will spend at least $200 million over the next five years to tap into the copper body and make the project work. Getting at the copper could cost more than $2 billion, an investment the British company is willing to make for its payoff down the road....
Drilling approved on Grass Mesa EnCana Oil and Gas has received permission to drill as many as 100 natural-gas wells on 9,792 acres in the Grass Mesa area south of Rifle during the next few years. The Bureau of Land Management’s Glenwood Springs Field Office approved a geographic area plan and environmental assessment for the area last week. The plan was submitted to the BLM about a year ago. It calls for six wells to be directionally drilled from one current well pad and 94 wells from 16 new well pads. More than 40 percent, or 4,065 acres, are BLM lands ,and nearly 60 percent, 5,725 acres, are privately owned....
Public asks questions about oil, gas leases
While the public was invited to comment on 12 specific oil and gas leases in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, many at a Wednesday meeting wanted the facts about all possible exploration in the 377,000-acre monument. Because of a recent federal court decision, the Bureau of Land Management is asking the public to comment on 12 existing oil and gas leases in the national monument. The leases cover about 10,000 acres....
Fur seal population in decline Northern fur seal moms whelped fewer pups on Pribilof Island beaches last summer than at any time since 1921, according to a preliminary population report released this week by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory. Overall pup counts have been dropping almost 6 percent each year since 1998, to an estimated 153,000 this year. This trend compounds a mysterious decline in the herd that has continued off and on for at least 30 years....
Research continues on Preble's jumping mouse A new report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that the Preble's meadow jumping mouse is identical to another subspecies of jumping mouse, bolstering Wyoming's argument that the mouse be removed from the endangered species list, according to Gov. Dave Freudenthal's office. The report released last week is in addition to a study last year that found the Preble's to be genetically identical to another mouse. "The Fish and Wildlife Service should be applauded for its efforts to seek the best science on the Preble's," Freudenthal said in a statement Wednesday. "Scrutiny of the science used to list the mouse in the first place has been extremely intense, and with good reason. My hope is that the recent efforts by the Service mark a shift in the way listing decisions will be made in the future."....
U.S. officials kill wolf pup near Roscoe The days appear numbered for a new wolf pack in the Roscoe area. Government agents shot a wolf pup Thursday after receiving reports of livestock losses this spring and summer. About 40 sheep and a half-dozen calves were killed, he said. And it appears most of the depredation is tied to these wolves, Bangs said. The calves belonged to several landowners but the sheep all belonged to one landowner....
Environmentalists intend to sue over sharp-tailed grouse A coalition of environmental groups plans to sue the federal government over its failure to list the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse as an endangered species. Led by the Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians, the groups on Thursday sent out a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The notice went to Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other officials. Sizable populations of the grouse are in Idaho and Colorado. The rest of the bird's current range comprises south-central Wyoming, northern Utah, northeastern Nevada, northern Washington and central British Columbia, according to the environmental groups....
Ten Years of Wolves in Yellowstone & Idaho Defenders of Wildlife is kicking-off the ten year anniversary of wolves in Yellowstone and Idaho by issuing its first State of the Wolf report. The study provides a snapshot in time of the ongoing recovery of the wolf nationwide and the threats that still jeopardize the future of these majestic creatures. The report examines gray wolves in 7 regions: Northern Rockies, Pacific Northwest, Southwest United States and Mexico, Southern Rockies, Great Lakes, Northeast and Alaska....Go here(pdf) to view the report.
Removal of Yosemite Dam to Be Studied Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's resources secretary has directed his agency to study possible restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, giving an unexpected official boost to the controversial idea of dismantling the dam that has been integral to the Bay Area's water supply for more than 80 years. Mike Chrisman's decision came at the request of Assembly members Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), and less than two months after the nonprofit group Environmental Defense released a study detailing possible alternatives to the Bay Area's sources of drinking water and hydroelectric power....
Groups claim win over BLM A pair of environmental groups have notched what they call a significant victory over the Bureau of Land Management in an ongoing battle over the sale of oil and gas leases in the state. The Department of Interior's Board of Land Appeals late Wednesday ruled in favor of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council, overturning the BLM's March 2002 decision to lease about 26,000 acres of public land in the Utah backcountry for oil and gas exploration. The two groups have lodged their complaints over what they describe as the BLM's failure to identify and inventory "cultural resources" such as archaeological sites and ancient cliff dwellings before selling the leases. They also accused the agency of failing to consult with American Indian tribes and other members of the public prior to the lease sales. Both are requirements under the National Historic Preservation Act....
Rainwater harvesting once common, needed again to promote conservation Remember Butch Cassidy and “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”? Well, grab those raindrops when they fall! Who knows when it will rain again, as we have seen over and over here in West Texas. Rainwater is a free source of nearly pure water and too valuable to waste. For thousands of years, the world has relied upon rainwater harvesting (RWH) to supply water for household, landscape and agricultural uses. Before city water systems were developed, rainwater was collected (mostly from roofs) and stored in cisterns or storage tanks....
Election serves as whack upside the head for environmental community The Bush victory dealt a devastating wallop to the environmental community, but some members say it also delivered a much-needed reality check to a movement struggling to find its soul. Understandably, many environmental leaders who jumped into the election fray insist their crusade to mobilize the green vote could not have been harder fought: Beltway groups raised record funds -- in total more than $12 million -- to help oust Bush, and deployed bigger volunteer armies than ever before to pound the pavement in swing states....
Pilot project to track, ID cattle in 7 states A voluntary pilot program geared at tracking and identifying cattle in seven Western states should be up and running in the next two weeks, organizers of the program said yesterday. Northwest beef-industry leaders announced plans in May to implement a pilot animal-identification system. The goal is to meet a new requirement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture ensuring that a diseased animal or tainted meat can be traced within 48 hours. The ability to trace livestock became crucial after the discovery of the nation's first case of mad-cow disease in a Washington state Holstein late last year....
Tumbling tumbleweeds I learned that there are five species of tumbleweeds in the United States. The Common Tumbleweed, a member of the Amaranth family, is native and is abundant in arid regions from Canada to Mexico. It is found in nearly every state and commonly grows in dry sandy soils on railroad embankments, road sides, gravel pits and waste places. The worst of the tumbleweeds is the Russian thistle, which is not really a thistle but a member of the Goosefoot family. It is sometimes called the Prairie Tumbleweed and hitchhiked into the United States during the last century in grain imported from Russia. Its stems form a loose globe up to 4 feet in diameter. Its long, thin, spine-tipped leaves and spines give it a bristly appearance. When young and green, it can be eaten by cattle, but when it is mature it is like cactus. It thrives on land too dry for most plants and is the last survivor in drought years. It sometimes appears in a brilliant reddish color in autumn....
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Thursday, November 11, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Group says Forest Service ignores grazing An environmental group accused the U.S. Forest Service of failing to adequately monitor livestock grazing allotments in New Mexico and Arizona and allowing overgrazing. The Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians compiled the report with data provided by the Forest Service under the Freedom of Information Act, said Billy Stern, grazing program director for Forest Guardians. The report, released Tuesday and based on data compiled between 1999 and 2003, said the worst year was 1999, when 75 percent of grazing allotments in the two states did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. According to the data used, the Apache-Sitgreaves, Prescott and Tonto national forests in Arizona, the Coronado national forest in both states and the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico had 50 percent or more allotments out of compliance for all five years of the study....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
Clash on high plains The greater sage grouse, a dusky, chicken-sized bird that puffs up like a balloon during mating season, is threatening to limit the production of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of natural gas in the sagebrush country of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana. Biologists say the number of greater sage grouse in the West has dropped from 2 million in the mid-19th century to fewer than 200,000 today. If the sage grouse is listed, it will light the fuse on a wildlife protection battle that some predict will dwarf the fights over the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, northern spotted owl and endangered Colorado River fish combined. "Some say the grouse could become the 'spotted owl' of the Intermountain West," said Secretary of Interior Gale Norton. "But the sage grouse occupies nearly 12 times as much land as the northern spotted owl."....
House, Senate set to make ESA reform a priority next session Endangered Species Act reform is shaping up to be a top issue for the next Congress, with the Republican leadership of the House and Senate authorizing committees vowing to prioritize passage of reform legislation. And with a larger Republican majority in the both chambers, as well as a White House amenable to ESA reform, congressional aides said the time is ripe to move a bill to final passage. Spokesmen for Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) both said yesterday that legislation on the issue would be a top priority this Congress....
Greens see hopeful signs in West Despite a bruising election defeat for Democrats, environmental leaders see some hopeful signs they are making headway in the West. “In Western states, we are detecting a shift in people's attitudes in what has been pretty much thought of as a solid bloc in favor of resource extraction,” said Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “Majorities were speaking out in favor of conservation, renewable energy, mass transit, pro-environment. I think we're going to be moving in that direction.” It is an assertion scoffed at by William Perry Pendley, director of the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation, based in Denver. "The environmental movement, more than any other election I've watched since 1964, went all-out to defeat George Bush. I've never seen the spending and they wrapped themselves around John Kerry and went down to stunning defeat," he said....
Delicate balance threatened in big-game country Nature played a cruel joke on Wyoming's Upper Green River Valley. Beneath the sagebrush plains crucial to tens of thousands of big-game animals and one of the state's largest concentrations of greater sage grouse are trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, trapped in layers of sandy soil. In the past five years, as the demand and price for natural gas has burgeoned, dozens of the nation's top oil companies have rushed to lock up leases on federal, state and private lands. Where tourist RV's once clogged highways, there now are caravans of red and white Halliburton drilling and support rigs....
Spirit of the Wild West often fenced in federal preserves Evoking images of a powerful rush of flying manes and stomping hooves, wild and estray horses have embodied the independent spirit of the Wild West. However, some groups worry it may all become an illusion. The Bureau of Land Management estimates 32,290 wild horses currently roam on public lands across the western United States. More than half of them - 17,679 - are in Nevada. About 6,000 horses are captured every year and roughly the same number are adopted. Yet about 14,000 formerly wild horses are now kept in federal preserves. While captivated populations are replaced by an 18-25 percent herd-reproduction rate, wild-horse advocates fear herds will be whittled to nothing....
Some Enviros Optimistic, Others Fear Bush's Second Term Not surprisingly, President Bush has thus far failed to mention the environment in discussions about his second-term agenda. But even though the White House will be focusing primarily on foreign policy and domestic economic issues, some environmentalists are optimistic that the administration will work to leave an environmental legacy to be proud of during its second term. "We hope the President's conciliatory and unifying words in his acceptance speech signal a new willingness to meet us halfway on key conservation issues," says Rodger Schlickeisen of Defenders of Wildlife. "We remain vigilant as ever but are hopeful that we can make some meaningful progress in Bush's second term."....
Could this ... stop this? Tiny endangered shrimp could derail retail giant Costco's plans to build in San Luis Obispo, unless the City Council allows the store to open before permits for road improvements are issued. While biologists look near Calle Joaquin for vernal pool fairy shrimp -- crustaceans the size of kidney beans that live in pools of standing water -- permits to straighten the road cannot be issued. Under the original plan, Costco can't open until the road improvements are permitted. The search for the shrimp could take all winter. Costco is under contract with the Madonna family, which owns the property, to buy the land by next month -- before studies of the pools might be finished. "It is too great a risk to purchase the property or begin building the warehouse without having the necessary Calle Joaquin permits in hand," the company's lawyer, V. Anthony Unan, wrote in a letter to the city....
Report finds vast maintenance backlog for West's national parks A new report concludes the Bush administration will not be able to eliminate millions of dollars in overdue maintenance at national parks by the time President Bush leaves office in 2009. "The administration will have addressed about 25 percent of the backlog," said F. Patrick Holmes, project manager for Colorado College's State of the Rockies Project. "Whatever they have done, it's insufficient." During his 2000 campaign, Bush accused the Clinton administration of leaving the parks in poor condition and promised to push for $5 billion in maintenance over five years. Since then, the National Park Service has tried to figure out how much maintenance actually needs to be done. Interior Secretary Gale Norton says the administration has spent more than $2.9 billion to help reduce an estimated $4.9 billion maintenance and repair backlog, though she admitted eliminating it is impossible....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
Suit: BLM fired man for revealing mine hazards A former project manager for a contaminated mine site said Wednesday that he was fired for refusing to keep silent about dangers posed by radioactive and other toxic wastes at the site. In a federal whistleblower complaint seeking more than million in damages, Earle Dixon said he was fired by the Bureau of Land Management in October in retaliation for his aggressive research and public comment on the health and safety risks to workers and residents near the former Anaconda copper mine bordering Yerington, an agricultural town in northern Nevada. A copy of the administrative complaint obtained by The Associated Press said Dixon refused to go along with repeated attempts by BLM management and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to downplay the issues....
Scamming seed seller sentenced to three years A Utah man who bilked taxpayers by selling bad seeds to the federal government got a break Wednesday when a judge sentenced him to three years in prison. Goble apologized for his actions, which involved providing 155,000 pounds of mislabeled fourwing saltbush seed to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The scam was the first of its kind involving the native seed industry and revolves around two contracts awarded to Goble Seed Co. Under the 1999 and 2001 agreements, the company was to deliver fourwing saltbush seed to the BLM in Nevada....
BLM approves Questar's winter drilling Year-round drilling for natural gas will be allowed on lands identified as crucial deer winter range, federal officials decided. Prill Mecham, the Bureau of Land Management's Pinedale Field Office director, agreed to allow Questar Exploration and Development Co. to drill six wells from three pads for nine years during winter months, starting next winter, in the Pinedale Anticline field....
Column: The Environmentalists vs. Safe Energy America’s domestic shortage of natural gas is, as Alan Greenspan has observed, "a very serious problem." Fortunately, there is a proven technology that could enable Americans to access plentiful natural gas stores from overseas: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)--natural gas cooled and condensed into a portable liquid, 1/600th its original volume. Given these facts, one might expect energy-short state governments to eagerly approve corporations’ proposals for new LNG facilities; instead, bowing to pressure from environmentalists, they are repeatedly rejecting them. Is LNG a disaster waiting to happen? Consider its history. In the last 60 years in the United States, only one person has died in an LNG-related accident. Countries like Japan use LNG accident-free to get nearly all of their natural gas. In 1995, LNG facilities in Kobe, Japan, went undamaged in an earthquake that registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale! LNG’s admirable safety record is the result of two fundamental factors....
Editorial: On The ANWR Path The oil under the permafrost of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hasn't changed since the White House failed to get the green light to drill there 19 months ago. But the political climate has. It was March 2003 when the administration's bid to open ANWR to oil development fell in the Senate by a vote of 52 to 48. But in January 2005, a new Senate hits town with four fresh members who are expected to support President Bush's wish to make use of the energy gift that awaits. Oh, and let's not forget that the president himself was re-elected....
Column: U.S. squandering oil, gas reserves Saturday night I had the privilege of listening to a noted expert on energy use. Randy Udall raised some cautionary flags about energy use in the United States. Perhaps the most frightening statement he made was to say, "We are as dependent on oil and natural gas as the Sioux and Cheyenne were on the buffalo." Udall presented some myths that we have been led to believe. One myth is that the well will never run dry; we will always have plenty of petroleum and natural gas. Another myth is that environmentalists are holding up development of oil and natural gas reserves in the Mountain West. The stark fact is that the United States has already used up two thirds of its petroleum reserves and one half of its natural gas reserves. Our natural gas production has reached a plateau and is starting to decline....
Ruling by court may imperil wetlands Broad interpretation of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the range of the Clean Water Act has left wetlands across the Southwest at risk, according to an environmental group's report. At least 3.3 million of the 20 million acres cited in the report are on the Texas coast and 200,000 more acres are "playa" lakes, which are clay basins that fill with rainfall in the Texas Panhandle, National Wildlife Federation representatives say. The nonprofit group says its November report assesses the impact of a ruling that favored supporters of a Chicago landfill....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
'Coastal Clash' documentary zooms in on Malibu A documentary premiering Friday spotlights struggles between beach property owners and beachgoers, exploring everything from seawalls to land trusts along California's coast and focuses about 10 minutes on beach access in Malibu. While the producers of the documentary say they gave equal time on camera to those on both sides of the issue of beach access, local residents and city leaders say the filmmakers did not do enough to contact more people in Malibu. The film, which co-producer Elizabeth Pepin calls an objective study of coastal issues, begins in Malibu, as the voice-over says, "The problem is how to get access to the beach in communities that are fenced and gated to keep the public out, like Malibu."....
Study group recommends compromise on landowner control of hunters A compromise plan that would give western South Dakota ranchers more control over who gets licenses to hunt deer on their land was endorsed Wednesday by a group studying ways to improve relations between landowners and hunters. However, the West River Issues Working Group was unable to agree on any proposal dealing with game wardens' ability to enter private land to check whether hunters are following the law. The compromise approved Wednesday would not guarantee licenses to anyone, but would let ranchers with at least 1,000 acres sponsor a certain number of hunters who would get the chance to draw licenses from a special pool. A hunter who got a license after being sponsored by a landowner could hunt only on that rancher's land....
Zebra-donkey hybrid finds home in Valley Marjorie Springmeyer, at 82, said she was depressed about politics at South Lake Tahoe and decided that buying a zedonk - half donkey, half zebra - might make her happy. The idea was planted in her head about a year ago after reading a Tahoe Daily Tribune article about a couple in Shingle Springs, Calif., that raises zedonks. When Springmeyer inquired about the hybrid animals, the breeder's wife informed her that her husband had since died, and she consented to sell one of their four zedonks. As of Oct. 9, Springmeyer and Tyndall own Skeeter. Skeeter is the son of Touchdown, a donkey, and Zella, a zebra. Skeeter has a sister named Zellarina....
Dallas not so modern that it won't host cattle drive Early this morning, in the dark canyons of downtown, Dallas is reflecting a little on its past. The bellowing of 100 Texas longhorns will mingle with the noise of thousands of daily commuters. They are steers, trophy steers with horn spans of 5 and 6 feet, and by midmorning they will be paraded through the city to kick off the 2004 Texas Stampede this weekend at the American Airlines Center. The herd, the dozen or so cowboys working it and the authentic chuck wagon parading behind it may seem incongruent against the Dallas skyline. For years, the city has tried to conceal its Western breeding. It has trumpeted itself as a modern city looking toward the future. But when the Pace Picante ProRodeo Classic comes to town, it's time to look back -- to kick off the Prada loafers and slip on the Justin Ropers. It may look a little funny, feel a little odd, but there is precedent. Dallas actually was once on a cattle trail. It was the Shawnee Trail, and it began in South Texas below Austin and passed through Waco, northward to Dallas, then to the Red River at Rock Bluff. It followed the eastern edge of what became Oklahoma, with terminals in Missouri at Sedalia, Westport, Kansas City, Independence and St. Louis....
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Group says Forest Service ignores grazing An environmental group accused the U.S. Forest Service of failing to adequately monitor livestock grazing allotments in New Mexico and Arizona and allowing overgrazing. The Santa Fe-based Forest Guardians compiled the report with data provided by the Forest Service under the Freedom of Information Act, said Billy Stern, grazing program director for Forest Guardians. The report, released Tuesday and based on data compiled between 1999 and 2003, said the worst year was 1999, when 75 percent of grazing allotments in the two states did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. According to the data used, the Apache-Sitgreaves, Prescott and Tonto national forests in Arizona, the Coronado national forest in both states and the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico had 50 percent or more allotments out of compliance for all five years of the study....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
Clash on high plains The greater sage grouse, a dusky, chicken-sized bird that puffs up like a balloon during mating season, is threatening to limit the production of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of natural gas in the sagebrush country of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Montana. Biologists say the number of greater sage grouse in the West has dropped from 2 million in the mid-19th century to fewer than 200,000 today. If the sage grouse is listed, it will light the fuse on a wildlife protection battle that some predict will dwarf the fights over the Preble's meadow jumping mouse, northern spotted owl and endangered Colorado River fish combined. "Some say the grouse could become the 'spotted owl' of the Intermountain West," said Secretary of Interior Gale Norton. "But the sage grouse occupies nearly 12 times as much land as the northern spotted owl."....
House, Senate set to make ESA reform a priority next session Endangered Species Act reform is shaping up to be a top issue for the next Congress, with the Republican leadership of the House and Senate authorizing committees vowing to prioritize passage of reform legislation. And with a larger Republican majority in the both chambers, as well as a White House amenable to ESA reform, congressional aides said the time is ripe to move a bill to final passage. Spokesmen for Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) both said yesterday that legislation on the issue would be a top priority this Congress....
Greens see hopeful signs in West Despite a bruising election defeat for Democrats, environmental leaders see some hopeful signs they are making headway in the West. “In Western states, we are detecting a shift in people's attitudes in what has been pretty much thought of as a solid bloc in favor of resource extraction,” said Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “Majorities were speaking out in favor of conservation, renewable energy, mass transit, pro-environment. I think we're going to be moving in that direction.” It is an assertion scoffed at by William Perry Pendley, director of the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation, based in Denver. "The environmental movement, more than any other election I've watched since 1964, went all-out to defeat George Bush. I've never seen the spending and they wrapped themselves around John Kerry and went down to stunning defeat," he said....
Delicate balance threatened in big-game country Nature played a cruel joke on Wyoming's Upper Green River Valley. Beneath the sagebrush plains crucial to tens of thousands of big-game animals and one of the state's largest concentrations of greater sage grouse are trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, trapped in layers of sandy soil. In the past five years, as the demand and price for natural gas has burgeoned, dozens of the nation's top oil companies have rushed to lock up leases on federal, state and private lands. Where tourist RV's once clogged highways, there now are caravans of red and white Halliburton drilling and support rigs....
Spirit of the Wild West often fenced in federal preserves Evoking images of a powerful rush of flying manes and stomping hooves, wild and estray horses have embodied the independent spirit of the Wild West. However, some groups worry it may all become an illusion. The Bureau of Land Management estimates 32,290 wild horses currently roam on public lands across the western United States. More than half of them - 17,679 - are in Nevada. About 6,000 horses are captured every year and roughly the same number are adopted. Yet about 14,000 formerly wild horses are now kept in federal preserves. While captivated populations are replaced by an 18-25 percent herd-reproduction rate, wild-horse advocates fear herds will be whittled to nothing....
Some Enviros Optimistic, Others Fear Bush's Second Term Not surprisingly, President Bush has thus far failed to mention the environment in discussions about his second-term agenda. But even though the White House will be focusing primarily on foreign policy and domestic economic issues, some environmentalists are optimistic that the administration will work to leave an environmental legacy to be proud of during its second term. "We hope the President's conciliatory and unifying words in his acceptance speech signal a new willingness to meet us halfway on key conservation issues," says Rodger Schlickeisen of Defenders of Wildlife. "We remain vigilant as ever but are hopeful that we can make some meaningful progress in Bush's second term."....
Could this ... stop this? Tiny endangered shrimp could derail retail giant Costco's plans to build in San Luis Obispo, unless the City Council allows the store to open before permits for road improvements are issued. While biologists look near Calle Joaquin for vernal pool fairy shrimp -- crustaceans the size of kidney beans that live in pools of standing water -- permits to straighten the road cannot be issued. Under the original plan, Costco can't open until the road improvements are permitted. The search for the shrimp could take all winter. Costco is under contract with the Madonna family, which owns the property, to buy the land by next month -- before studies of the pools might be finished. "It is too great a risk to purchase the property or begin building the warehouse without having the necessary Calle Joaquin permits in hand," the company's lawyer, V. Anthony Unan, wrote in a letter to the city....
Report finds vast maintenance backlog for West's national parks A new report concludes the Bush administration will not be able to eliminate millions of dollars in overdue maintenance at national parks by the time President Bush leaves office in 2009. "The administration will have addressed about 25 percent of the backlog," said F. Patrick Holmes, project manager for Colorado College's State of the Rockies Project. "Whatever they have done, it's insufficient." During his 2000 campaign, Bush accused the Clinton administration of leaving the parks in poor condition and promised to push for $5 billion in maintenance over five years. Since then, the National Park Service has tried to figure out how much maintenance actually needs to be done. Interior Secretary Gale Norton says the administration has spent more than $2.9 billion to help reduce an estimated $4.9 billion maintenance and repair backlog, though she admitted eliminating it is impossible....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
Suit: BLM fired man for revealing mine hazards A former project manager for a contaminated mine site said Wednesday that he was fired for refusing to keep silent about dangers posed by radioactive and other toxic wastes at the site. In a federal whistleblower complaint seeking more than million in damages, Earle Dixon said he was fired by the Bureau of Land Management in October in retaliation for his aggressive research and public comment on the health and safety risks to workers and residents near the former Anaconda copper mine bordering Yerington, an agricultural town in northern Nevada. A copy of the administrative complaint obtained by The Associated Press said Dixon refused to go along with repeated attempts by BLM management and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to downplay the issues....
Scamming seed seller sentenced to three years A Utah man who bilked taxpayers by selling bad seeds to the federal government got a break Wednesday when a judge sentenced him to three years in prison. Goble apologized for his actions, which involved providing 155,000 pounds of mislabeled fourwing saltbush seed to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The scam was the first of its kind involving the native seed industry and revolves around two contracts awarded to Goble Seed Co. Under the 1999 and 2001 agreements, the company was to deliver fourwing saltbush seed to the BLM in Nevada....
BLM approves Questar's winter drilling Year-round drilling for natural gas will be allowed on lands identified as crucial deer winter range, federal officials decided. Prill Mecham, the Bureau of Land Management's Pinedale Field Office director, agreed to allow Questar Exploration and Development Co. to drill six wells from three pads for nine years during winter months, starting next winter, in the Pinedale Anticline field....
Column: The Environmentalists vs. Safe Energy America’s domestic shortage of natural gas is, as Alan Greenspan has observed, "a very serious problem." Fortunately, there is a proven technology that could enable Americans to access plentiful natural gas stores from overseas: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)--natural gas cooled and condensed into a portable liquid, 1/600th its original volume. Given these facts, one might expect energy-short state governments to eagerly approve corporations’ proposals for new LNG facilities; instead, bowing to pressure from environmentalists, they are repeatedly rejecting them. Is LNG a disaster waiting to happen? Consider its history. In the last 60 years in the United States, only one person has died in an LNG-related accident. Countries like Japan use LNG accident-free to get nearly all of their natural gas. In 1995, LNG facilities in Kobe, Japan, went undamaged in an earthquake that registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale! LNG’s admirable safety record is the result of two fundamental factors....
Editorial: On The ANWR Path The oil under the permafrost of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge hasn't changed since the White House failed to get the green light to drill there 19 months ago. But the political climate has. It was March 2003 when the administration's bid to open ANWR to oil development fell in the Senate by a vote of 52 to 48. But in January 2005, a new Senate hits town with four fresh members who are expected to support President Bush's wish to make use of the energy gift that awaits. Oh, and let's not forget that the president himself was re-elected....
Column: U.S. squandering oil, gas reserves Saturday night I had the privilege of listening to a noted expert on energy use. Randy Udall raised some cautionary flags about energy use in the United States. Perhaps the most frightening statement he made was to say, "We are as dependent on oil and natural gas as the Sioux and Cheyenne were on the buffalo." Udall presented some myths that we have been led to believe. One myth is that the well will never run dry; we will always have plenty of petroleum and natural gas. Another myth is that environmentalists are holding up development of oil and natural gas reserves in the Mountain West. The stark fact is that the United States has already used up two thirds of its petroleum reserves and one half of its natural gas reserves. Our natural gas production has reached a plateau and is starting to decline....
Ruling by court may imperil wetlands Broad interpretation of a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the range of the Clean Water Act has left wetlands across the Southwest at risk, according to an environmental group's report. At least 3.3 million of the 20 million acres cited in the report are on the Texas coast and 200,000 more acres are "playa" lakes, which are clay basins that fill with rainfall in the Texas Panhandle, National Wildlife Federation representatives say. The nonprofit group says its November report assesses the impact of a ruling that favored supporters of a Chicago landfill....Go here(pdf)to view the report.
'Coastal Clash' documentary zooms in on Malibu A documentary premiering Friday spotlights struggles between beach property owners and beachgoers, exploring everything from seawalls to land trusts along California's coast and focuses about 10 minutes on beach access in Malibu. While the producers of the documentary say they gave equal time on camera to those on both sides of the issue of beach access, local residents and city leaders say the filmmakers did not do enough to contact more people in Malibu. The film, which co-producer Elizabeth Pepin calls an objective study of coastal issues, begins in Malibu, as the voice-over says, "The problem is how to get access to the beach in communities that are fenced and gated to keep the public out, like Malibu."....
Study group recommends compromise on landowner control of hunters A compromise plan that would give western South Dakota ranchers more control over who gets licenses to hunt deer on their land was endorsed Wednesday by a group studying ways to improve relations between landowners and hunters. However, the West River Issues Working Group was unable to agree on any proposal dealing with game wardens' ability to enter private land to check whether hunters are following the law. The compromise approved Wednesday would not guarantee licenses to anyone, but would let ranchers with at least 1,000 acres sponsor a certain number of hunters who would get the chance to draw licenses from a special pool. A hunter who got a license after being sponsored by a landowner could hunt only on that rancher's land....
Zebra-donkey hybrid finds home in Valley Marjorie Springmeyer, at 82, said she was depressed about politics at South Lake Tahoe and decided that buying a zedonk - half donkey, half zebra - might make her happy. The idea was planted in her head about a year ago after reading a Tahoe Daily Tribune article about a couple in Shingle Springs, Calif., that raises zedonks. When Springmeyer inquired about the hybrid animals, the breeder's wife informed her that her husband had since died, and she consented to sell one of their four zedonks. As of Oct. 9, Springmeyer and Tyndall own Skeeter. Skeeter is the son of Touchdown, a donkey, and Zella, a zebra. Skeeter has a sister named Zellarina....
Dallas not so modern that it won't host cattle drive Early this morning, in the dark canyons of downtown, Dallas is reflecting a little on its past. The bellowing of 100 Texas longhorns will mingle with the noise of thousands of daily commuters. They are steers, trophy steers with horn spans of 5 and 6 feet, and by midmorning they will be paraded through the city to kick off the 2004 Texas Stampede this weekend at the American Airlines Center. The herd, the dozen or so cowboys working it and the authentic chuck wagon parading behind it may seem incongruent against the Dallas skyline. For years, the city has tried to conceal its Western breeding. It has trumpeted itself as a modern city looking toward the future. But when the Pace Picante ProRodeo Classic comes to town, it's time to look back -- to kick off the Prada loafers and slip on the Justin Ropers. It may look a little funny, feel a little odd, but there is precedent. Dallas actually was once on a cattle trail. It was the Shawnee Trail, and it began in South Texas below Austin and passed through Waco, northward to Dallas, then to the Red River at Rock Bluff. It followed the eastern edge of what became Oklahoma, with terminals in Missouri at Sedalia, Westport, Kansas City, Independence and St. Louis....
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Wednesday, November 10, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Norton foresees sage grouse disruption Despite millions in federal spending for private landowners to set aside acreage for a rare grouse species, Interior Secretary Gale Norton sees "very significant potential" for the bird to disrupt plans to tap natural gas and oil in the West. A decision on whether to add the greater sage grouse to the endangered species list is due by the end of the year....
Man says wolves attacked hunting hounds A Grant County man said he may sue the state after his hunting hounds were attacked by a pack of wolves Sunday morning while trailing a bear near the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Billy Lee, 44, a Mimbres resident and 15-year hunting outfitter, said several of his hunting hounds were attacked by wolves in the Brushy Mountain area just south of the cliff dwellings around 10 a.m. Lee said two of the dogs were severely injured in the attack and may have died had he not been close by when the attack occurred. Colleen Buchanan, assistant Mexican wolf recovery coordinator, said the location of the Saddle Pack in the Gila Wilderness is “perfect” and the incident has not spawned any plans to move or kill the wolves. She said there should be only minimal concern to hikers and campers with dogs in that area of the Wilderness....
Panel: Farmers Should Be Allowed To Shoot Mtn. Lions Farmers and ranchers should be allowed to shoot mountain lions that are near their buildings or are killing their livestock, a special state study group recommended Tuesday. The West River Issues Working Group gave tentative approval to the proposal Tuesday. The Game, Fish and Parks Department formed the group to make recommendations aimed at improving relations between hunters and landowners in western South Dakota. The panel planned to finish its draft recommendations on a number of issues Wednesday. It will take a final vote on those recommendations Nov. 30....
Environmentalists sue over Yellowstone groomed roads Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit over the National Park Service's plan for allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park for the next three winters. The groups claim the government failed to take into account the effect that roads groomed for snow machines have on wildlife, particularly bison, under the temporary plan. The complaint brought by The Fund for Animals, Bluewater Network and three individuals names as defendants Interior Secretary Gale Norton and National Park Service Director Fran Mainella. The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after the Park Service issued a "finding of no significant impact" for its winter use plans, an attorney said....
Environment Officials See a Chance to Shape Regulations Emboldened by President Bush's victory, the nation's top environmental officials are claiming a broad mandate to refashion the regulation of air and water pollution and wildlife protection in ways that will promote energy production and economic development. "The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda," said Mike Leavitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental protections, he said, must be done "in a way that maintains the economic competitiveness of the country." Leavitt pointed out that four more years give administration officials an opportunity to mold the environmental agency's professional staffs to more closely reflect their priorities. Leavitt said 35% of the EPA's staff would become eligible to retire in the next four years, giving him a chance to remake from the inside out the agency that takes the lead in enforcing air and water pollution and the cleanup of toxic dumps....
Forest Service officials look to take discussion to Washington, D.C. Forest Service officials from across the region gathered in Missoula Tuesday for a two-day conference to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the agency - and to explore the next century of public lands management, as a soaring population, aging society and other demographic trends present new and growing challenges to the nation's forests. The Northern Region Centennial Forum, which runs through Wednesday, is one of nine regional forums being held across the country this month, culminating in a national Forest Service Centennial Congress, to be held in Washington, D.C., in January. The regional forums are an opportunity to focus discussion at the national conference, according to Regional Forester Gail Kimbell, whose Northern Region turf stretches across 25 million acres and spreads over five states, including Montana, Idaho, and sections of Washington and the Dakotas....
Green organizers keep fighting Alaska environmentalists say they've had to repeatedly jump through hoops to oppose federal plans for more roads in national forests. They made that point Tuesday by submitting nearly 6,000 letters -- through a hula hoop -- to U.S. Forest Service officials from Alaskans opposed to Bush administration plans for national forests. "They keep asking us the same things over and over again," said Bobbie Jo Skibo of the Alaska Center for the Environment. "We're going to keep jumping through the hoops because it matters."....
Plant ruled not sparse enough for protection A carrot-like Mojave Desert plant is more abundant than previously believed, and therefore does not qualify for protection as an endangered species, a federal agency has ruled. The announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tuesday shot a hole in a claim that Army activity at Fort Irwin posed a threat to the desert cymopterus, a member of the carrot family with small purple flowers. If the plant had been listed as endangered, it could have thrown another hurdle toward development throughout much of the desert....
Feds reject considering white-tailed prairie dog for protection The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a request Tuesday to consider federal protection for the white-tailed prairie dog, saying there wasn't enough scientific information to warrant studying whether the animal should be placed on the federal endangered species list. The white-tailed prairie dog is generally found west of the Continental Divide in the sagebrush-covered swaths of land in northwestern Colorado, northeastern Utah, central and western Wyoming and in parts of Montana. It is a different species from the black-tailed prairie dog, which is found east of the Continental Divide. Black-tailed prairie dogs were dropped in August from a list of animals being considered for endangered species status....
Plan May Keep Bird Off Endangered List An initiative by the Bureau of Land Management to conserve the habitat of the northern sage grouse is complicating efforts to earn the bird designation as an endangered species. The bird is a signature species of the West whose range overlaps with oil and gas deposits and grazing lands throughout the Rocky Mountain states. The initiative, likely to be unveiled next week by the bureau, is outlined in a series of internal documents. The effort to get the bird listed is being considered by a sister agency in the Interior Department, the Fish and Wildlife Service, which must make its decision by Dec. 29. Such a designation could lead to new restrictions on energy exploration and grazing on lands where the birds live....
Invasive marsh grass spreading fast in San Francisco Bay An exotic marsh grass is spreading throughout San Francisco Bay more rapidly than anticipated, threatening native plants and birds and prompting an urgent search for ways to eradicate it. Spartina alterniflora, also known as Atlantic cordgrass, has expanded from 470 acres in 2000 to an estimated 2,000 acres in 2003, according to the California Coastal Conservancy's San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project. Those 2,000 acres are distributed over 69,000 acres of tidal marsh and mudflats throughout the bay. If left alone, the invader could destroy thousands of acres of bird and wildlife habitat, extinguish native plant species and clog tidal creeks and flood control channels. Researchers are worried about the impact on migratory birds because San Francisco Bay is considered the West Coast's most important estuary for such birds....
Judge sides with county A federal District Court judge has struck down a designation which deemed areas of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore as critical habitat for wintering piping plovers. The opinion states that the Service must determine that "those physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species and which may require special management considerations or protection" - PCEs - are "found" on specific areas with the area to be designated. "It appears that, incredibly, the Service admits in the final rule [posting the designation in the Federal Register] that some designated areas do not contain PCEs," wrote Lambreth. "The Service's argued-for interpretation, essentially that designation is proper merely if PCEs will likely be found in the future, is simply beyond the pale of the statute," states the opinion. A list of other shortcomings in the determination of critical habitat designations also were noted in the opinion, including the interpretation of "best available science," economic impact, and compliance with other federal laws and regulations including the National Environmental Policy Act....
Feds reopen proposal to list butterfly as endangered A proposal to add the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly to the endangered species list could cost more than $500,000 according to an economic analysis released Monday by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency has drafted a proposed conservation plan to protect the 2-inch butterfly. It lives in high mountain meadows within a few miles of Cloudcroft. The economic analysis suggests conservation measures could range between $533,000 and $816,000....
Judge hears bear hunt arguments Prospects of a planned second black bear hunt in New Jersey rest with a state judge, following a Tuesday hearing in appellate court here. The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation, and several other sportsmen's groups have sued Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, over his refusal to issue permits for the hunt. Campbell has withheld approximately 3,000 permits for the bruin six-day season despite its approval earlier this year by the Fish and Game Council....
Wolf-recovery panel takes hands-off stance for now Pioneering wolves migrating into Colorado should be allowed to live unmolested - unless they start killing livestock, a state panel said last week. If adopted next year, that recommendation would make Colorado the first state in the interior West to voluntarily accept the return of the region's top predator. And it would come as a result of a historic compromise by the state's still-powerful ranching community, whose forebears exterminated wolves in Colorado by the mid-20th century....
GOP to try again to drill for oil in Alaska refuge Republican gains in the Senate could give President Bush his best chance yet to achieve his No. 1 energy priority: opening an oil-rich but environmentally sensitive Alaska wildlife refuge to drilling. If he is successful, it would be a stinging defeat for environmentalists and an energy triumph that eluded Bush during his first four years in the White House. A broader agenda that includes reviving nuclear power, preventing blackouts and expanding oil and gas drilling in the Rockies would be more difficult to enact. Republicans in the House and Senate said this week they plan to push for Alaska refuge drilling legislation early next year, and they predict success, given the 55-44 GOP Senate majority in the next Congress....
Park Service hopes new plan balances use of Colorado River The National Park Service last updated its Colorado River management plan for Grand Canyon National Park 15 years ago. Since then, the outdoor recreation and tourism industry has exploded, creating an unprecedented demand on the river. Nudged along by a lawsuit settlement, the National Park Service has now produced a new management proposal for the river, one that Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Joe Alston hopes will balance the needs of commercial and private users, as well as at least muffle the long-running argument over the use of motorized boats in the canyon....
Bureau plans 90-hour flood to add silt to Grand Canyon A new controlled flood at the Grand Canyon could occur later this month. The Bureau of Reclamation wants to release extra water from Glen Canyon Dam beginning Nov. 21. If approved, the extra flow would run for 90 hours, stirring up an estimated 800,000 metric tons of sediment. Officials first flooded the canyon in 1996 with an 18-day water release, designed to return some of the natural sediment along the Colorado River within the canyon. Because of Glen Canyon Dam, the silt that normally occurs in the ecosystem is not deposited, affecting the natural environment, scientists say....
Anti-biotech measures defeated by voters With family farmers leading the way, two county initiatives aimed at banning the use of agricultural biotechnology were soundly defeated on Election Day. A third measure in Humboldt County was deemed so ill-worded it was abandoned even by its authors before voters went to the polls, and also failed. Voters in Butte County rejected the anti-biotech measure put before them by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. In San Luis Obispo County, the anti-biotech initiative failed to pass by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent. Experts said that the overall results of last week's vote on proposed biotech bans sends a strong signal across the nation that voters in high-production farm counties aren't willing to reject the technology....
Cattle Investigation Cattle rustling is one of the oldest crimes in California -- its roots go back to the Wild West. Yet, cattle rustling cases have nearly tripled in the last few years, according to detectives, mostly because the price of beef has gone up. The days of the Wild West may be long gone but cattle rustling in the central valley is still a serious crime. Rancher Chris Lang described the crime for NBC4's Ana Garcia, "They only take the valuable part. They take the valuable part of the cow, and are in and out in just a matter of minutes. They butcher it right in the field." Tulare County Sheriff Bill Whitman told NBC4, "When someone steals their cattle I take it personal...We'll hunt you down."....
Sad tale of New West: Good guys lose It's another last roundup story. Buffalo herds disappear, boomtowns go bust and Roy Rogers' Trigger and Bullet are stuffed and on display. Now, Cross Western Store is closing its doors after 126 years of making saddles, outfitting ranchers and dressing rodeo queens. "It's the end of an era," lifelong customer Val Byram of South Weber said Monday. "We've been in the sheep business for three generations. My grandfather, my father and his brothers and then my generation shopped at Cross. We bought tack, long johns, boots, clothes and stoves for our sheep camps there." Cross Western is the victim of changes in Western lifestyle, fickle fashion trends and the decline of Ogden's downtown shopping district....
Free for the asking I looked down the sights of my little varmint gun and pondered if I should even be entertaining the thought of tryin’ to shoot this prairie dog standing atop his mound some 60 or so yards away. In the last few weeks, I have killed about 50 or so of the little vermin, and yes, I know that some of you are disgusted with me for doing so. You know why you are so disgusted with me — it’s because it’s not your place that they are destroying, and they are so cute, right? Tell ya what. Rent yerself one of those vacuum trucks and come out here and suck up all the little cuties yer little heart desires. Yep, they are free for the asking, you don’t owe me anything. Actually, I will give you a dollar for every one you take home with you. How’s that for a deal?....
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Norton foresees sage grouse disruption Despite millions in federal spending for private landowners to set aside acreage for a rare grouse species, Interior Secretary Gale Norton sees "very significant potential" for the bird to disrupt plans to tap natural gas and oil in the West. A decision on whether to add the greater sage grouse to the endangered species list is due by the end of the year....
Man says wolves attacked hunting hounds A Grant County man said he may sue the state after his hunting hounds were attacked by a pack of wolves Sunday morning while trailing a bear near the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Billy Lee, 44, a Mimbres resident and 15-year hunting outfitter, said several of his hunting hounds were attacked by wolves in the Brushy Mountain area just south of the cliff dwellings around 10 a.m. Lee said two of the dogs were severely injured in the attack and may have died had he not been close by when the attack occurred. Colleen Buchanan, assistant Mexican wolf recovery coordinator, said the location of the Saddle Pack in the Gila Wilderness is “perfect” and the incident has not spawned any plans to move or kill the wolves. She said there should be only minimal concern to hikers and campers with dogs in that area of the Wilderness....
Panel: Farmers Should Be Allowed To Shoot Mtn. Lions Farmers and ranchers should be allowed to shoot mountain lions that are near their buildings or are killing their livestock, a special state study group recommended Tuesday. The West River Issues Working Group gave tentative approval to the proposal Tuesday. The Game, Fish and Parks Department formed the group to make recommendations aimed at improving relations between hunters and landowners in western South Dakota. The panel planned to finish its draft recommendations on a number of issues Wednesday. It will take a final vote on those recommendations Nov. 30....
Environmentalists sue over Yellowstone groomed roads Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit over the National Park Service's plan for allowing snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park for the next three winters. The groups claim the government failed to take into account the effect that roads groomed for snow machines have on wildlife, particularly bison, under the temporary plan. The complaint brought by The Fund for Animals, Bluewater Network and three individuals names as defendants Interior Secretary Gale Norton and National Park Service Director Fran Mainella. The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after the Park Service issued a "finding of no significant impact" for its winter use plans, an attorney said....
Environment Officials See a Chance to Shape Regulations Emboldened by President Bush's victory, the nation's top environmental officials are claiming a broad mandate to refashion the regulation of air and water pollution and wildlife protection in ways that will promote energy production and economic development. "The election was a validation of the philosophy and the agenda," said Mike Leavitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental protections, he said, must be done "in a way that maintains the economic competitiveness of the country." Leavitt pointed out that four more years give administration officials an opportunity to mold the environmental agency's professional staffs to more closely reflect their priorities. Leavitt said 35% of the EPA's staff would become eligible to retire in the next four years, giving him a chance to remake from the inside out the agency that takes the lead in enforcing air and water pollution and the cleanup of toxic dumps....
Forest Service officials look to take discussion to Washington, D.C. Forest Service officials from across the region gathered in Missoula Tuesday for a two-day conference to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the agency - and to explore the next century of public lands management, as a soaring population, aging society and other demographic trends present new and growing challenges to the nation's forests. The Northern Region Centennial Forum, which runs through Wednesday, is one of nine regional forums being held across the country this month, culminating in a national Forest Service Centennial Congress, to be held in Washington, D.C., in January. The regional forums are an opportunity to focus discussion at the national conference, according to Regional Forester Gail Kimbell, whose Northern Region turf stretches across 25 million acres and spreads over five states, including Montana, Idaho, and sections of Washington and the Dakotas....
Green organizers keep fighting Alaska environmentalists say they've had to repeatedly jump through hoops to oppose federal plans for more roads in national forests. They made that point Tuesday by submitting nearly 6,000 letters -- through a hula hoop -- to U.S. Forest Service officials from Alaskans opposed to Bush administration plans for national forests. "They keep asking us the same things over and over again," said Bobbie Jo Skibo of the Alaska Center for the Environment. "We're going to keep jumping through the hoops because it matters."....
Plant ruled not sparse enough for protection A carrot-like Mojave Desert plant is more abundant than previously believed, and therefore does not qualify for protection as an endangered species, a federal agency has ruled. The announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tuesday shot a hole in a claim that Army activity at Fort Irwin posed a threat to the desert cymopterus, a member of the carrot family with small purple flowers. If the plant had been listed as endangered, it could have thrown another hurdle toward development throughout much of the desert....
Feds reject considering white-tailed prairie dog for protection The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a request Tuesday to consider federal protection for the white-tailed prairie dog, saying there wasn't enough scientific information to warrant studying whether the animal should be placed on the federal endangered species list. The white-tailed prairie dog is generally found west of the Continental Divide in the sagebrush-covered swaths of land in northwestern Colorado, northeastern Utah, central and western Wyoming and in parts of Montana. It is a different species from the black-tailed prairie dog, which is found east of the Continental Divide. Black-tailed prairie dogs were dropped in August from a list of animals being considered for endangered species status....
Plan May Keep Bird Off Endangered List An initiative by the Bureau of Land Management to conserve the habitat of the northern sage grouse is complicating efforts to earn the bird designation as an endangered species. The bird is a signature species of the West whose range overlaps with oil and gas deposits and grazing lands throughout the Rocky Mountain states. The initiative, likely to be unveiled next week by the bureau, is outlined in a series of internal documents. The effort to get the bird listed is being considered by a sister agency in the Interior Department, the Fish and Wildlife Service, which must make its decision by Dec. 29. Such a designation could lead to new restrictions on energy exploration and grazing on lands where the birds live....
Invasive marsh grass spreading fast in San Francisco Bay An exotic marsh grass is spreading throughout San Francisco Bay more rapidly than anticipated, threatening native plants and birds and prompting an urgent search for ways to eradicate it. Spartina alterniflora, also known as Atlantic cordgrass, has expanded from 470 acres in 2000 to an estimated 2,000 acres in 2003, according to the California Coastal Conservancy's San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project. Those 2,000 acres are distributed over 69,000 acres of tidal marsh and mudflats throughout the bay. If left alone, the invader could destroy thousands of acres of bird and wildlife habitat, extinguish native plant species and clog tidal creeks and flood control channels. Researchers are worried about the impact on migratory birds because San Francisco Bay is considered the West Coast's most important estuary for such birds....
Judge sides with county A federal District Court judge has struck down a designation which deemed areas of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore as critical habitat for wintering piping plovers. The opinion states that the Service must determine that "those physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species and which may require special management considerations or protection" - PCEs - are "found" on specific areas with the area to be designated. "It appears that, incredibly, the Service admits in the final rule [posting the designation in the Federal Register] that some designated areas do not contain PCEs," wrote Lambreth. "The Service's argued-for interpretation, essentially that designation is proper merely if PCEs will likely be found in the future, is simply beyond the pale of the statute," states the opinion. A list of other shortcomings in the determination of critical habitat designations also were noted in the opinion, including the interpretation of "best available science," economic impact, and compliance with other federal laws and regulations including the National Environmental Policy Act....
Feds reopen proposal to list butterfly as endangered A proposal to add the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly to the endangered species list could cost more than $500,000 according to an economic analysis released Monday by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency has drafted a proposed conservation plan to protect the 2-inch butterfly. It lives in high mountain meadows within a few miles of Cloudcroft. The economic analysis suggests conservation measures could range between $533,000 and $816,000....
Judge hears bear hunt arguments Prospects of a planned second black bear hunt in New Jersey rest with a state judge, following a Tuesday hearing in appellate court here. The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation, and several other sportsmen's groups have sued Bradley Campbell, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, over his refusal to issue permits for the hunt. Campbell has withheld approximately 3,000 permits for the bruin six-day season despite its approval earlier this year by the Fish and Game Council....
Wolf-recovery panel takes hands-off stance for now Pioneering wolves migrating into Colorado should be allowed to live unmolested - unless they start killing livestock, a state panel said last week. If adopted next year, that recommendation would make Colorado the first state in the interior West to voluntarily accept the return of the region's top predator. And it would come as a result of a historic compromise by the state's still-powerful ranching community, whose forebears exterminated wolves in Colorado by the mid-20th century....
GOP to try again to drill for oil in Alaska refuge Republican gains in the Senate could give President Bush his best chance yet to achieve his No. 1 energy priority: opening an oil-rich but environmentally sensitive Alaska wildlife refuge to drilling. If he is successful, it would be a stinging defeat for environmentalists and an energy triumph that eluded Bush during his first four years in the White House. A broader agenda that includes reviving nuclear power, preventing blackouts and expanding oil and gas drilling in the Rockies would be more difficult to enact. Republicans in the House and Senate said this week they plan to push for Alaska refuge drilling legislation early next year, and they predict success, given the 55-44 GOP Senate majority in the next Congress....
Park Service hopes new plan balances use of Colorado River The National Park Service last updated its Colorado River management plan for Grand Canyon National Park 15 years ago. Since then, the outdoor recreation and tourism industry has exploded, creating an unprecedented demand on the river. Nudged along by a lawsuit settlement, the National Park Service has now produced a new management proposal for the river, one that Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Joe Alston hopes will balance the needs of commercial and private users, as well as at least muffle the long-running argument over the use of motorized boats in the canyon....
Bureau plans 90-hour flood to add silt to Grand Canyon A new controlled flood at the Grand Canyon could occur later this month. The Bureau of Reclamation wants to release extra water from Glen Canyon Dam beginning Nov. 21. If approved, the extra flow would run for 90 hours, stirring up an estimated 800,000 metric tons of sediment. Officials first flooded the canyon in 1996 with an 18-day water release, designed to return some of the natural sediment along the Colorado River within the canyon. Because of Glen Canyon Dam, the silt that normally occurs in the ecosystem is not deposited, affecting the natural environment, scientists say....
Anti-biotech measures defeated by voters With family farmers leading the way, two county initiatives aimed at banning the use of agricultural biotechnology were soundly defeated on Election Day. A third measure in Humboldt County was deemed so ill-worded it was abandoned even by its authors before voters went to the polls, and also failed. Voters in Butte County rejected the anti-biotech measure put before them by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. In San Luis Obispo County, the anti-biotech initiative failed to pass by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent. Experts said that the overall results of last week's vote on proposed biotech bans sends a strong signal across the nation that voters in high-production farm counties aren't willing to reject the technology....
Cattle Investigation Cattle rustling is one of the oldest crimes in California -- its roots go back to the Wild West. Yet, cattle rustling cases have nearly tripled in the last few years, according to detectives, mostly because the price of beef has gone up. The days of the Wild West may be long gone but cattle rustling in the central valley is still a serious crime. Rancher Chris Lang described the crime for NBC4's Ana Garcia, "They only take the valuable part. They take the valuable part of the cow, and are in and out in just a matter of minutes. They butcher it right in the field." Tulare County Sheriff Bill Whitman told NBC4, "When someone steals their cattle I take it personal...We'll hunt you down."....
Sad tale of New West: Good guys lose It's another last roundup story. Buffalo herds disappear, boomtowns go bust and Roy Rogers' Trigger and Bullet are stuffed and on display. Now, Cross Western Store is closing its doors after 126 years of making saddles, outfitting ranchers and dressing rodeo queens. "It's the end of an era," lifelong customer Val Byram of South Weber said Monday. "We've been in the sheep business for three generations. My grandfather, my father and his brothers and then my generation shopped at Cross. We bought tack, long johns, boots, clothes and stoves for our sheep camps there." Cross Western is the victim of changes in Western lifestyle, fickle fashion trends and the decline of Ogden's downtown shopping district....
Free for the asking I looked down the sights of my little varmint gun and pondered if I should even be entertaining the thought of tryin’ to shoot this prairie dog standing atop his mound some 60 or so yards away. In the last few weeks, I have killed about 50 or so of the little vermin, and yes, I know that some of you are disgusted with me for doing so. You know why you are so disgusted with me — it’s because it’s not your place that they are destroying, and they are so cute, right? Tell ya what. Rent yerself one of those vacuum trucks and come out here and suck up all the little cuties yer little heart desires. Yep, they are free for the asking, you don’t owe me anything. Actually, I will give you a dollar for every one you take home with you. How’s that for a deal?....
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Tuesday, November 09, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Enviros seek to intervene in wolf lawsuit Environmentalists on Monday asked to become involved in a lawsuit contesting the federal government's rejection of Wyoming's plan for managing wolves. Lack of an acceptable Wyoming management plan has held up removal of the wolves from federal protection so Idaho and Montana, as well as Wyoming, can begin managing the animals themselves. The lawsuit was filed in September by more than two dozen groups critical of federal wolf protection, and it is similar to the state suit filed in April that contested the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's rejection of the Wyoming plan to manage wolves once they are no longer protected under the Endangered Species Act....
Lawsuit challenges road plan as bad for bears A lawsuit by two environmental groups charges U.S. Forest Service road plans will do little to help grizzly bears regain numbers in the Cabinet/Yaak and Selkirk areas of Montana and Idaho. The Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contend the road plans recently adopted will foster secure habitat for grizzlies. The suit charges the new road management strategy for the Kootenai, Lolo and Idaho Panhandle national forests does not go far enough in closing or reclaiming forest roads to protect bears....
Scorched-earth Policy Continues in Northern California Six years and $600,000 worth of environmental assessments were not enough for three environmental organizations that brought lawsuits and appeals against the Beaver Creek Project on the Scott River District. Apparently, the environmental assessments, which measure several feet thick, were also not enough for U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. who ultimately blocked the timber-thinning project. Klamath Forest Alliance, led by Felice Pace, the Environmental Protection Information Center, called EPIC, and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands sued the Forest Service and ultimately won, when Judge Damrell ruled in their favor three weeks ago. The project had been in litigation since June of 2003....
Forest Service conference to look back at last 100 years A diverse group of people interested and involved in the management of national forests are coming together in Missoula to discuss the Forest Service's first 100 years of existence. The conference will begin Tuesday morning and run through Wednesday evening and feature speakers from the Forest Service, forest advocacy groups, timber industry leaders and professors from the University of Montana. On July 1, 1905, the Forest Service was formed from ideas conceived at the first Conservation Congress held only months earlier, said Paula Nelson, media officer for region one. This conference is an attempt for people from all interest groups to discuss how well management of the public forests was executed the past 100 years....
Man objects to pilot's posthumous medals A man whose wife died in a plane crash in the Montana wilderness criticized Gov. Judy Martz on Monday for deciding to posthumously award the pilot a medal. "His negligence, recklessness and carelessness on that day — and disregard for the weather and flying in the mountains — had disregard for the people on board," Bryant told The Associated Press. "It's pretty callous of the governor's office to just say this guy is a hero without looking into the whole situation," he said. "That plane should never have left the ground."....
Court denies rainbow gathering organizer's appeal of conviction The federal government did not violate the rights of a Rainbow Family member when it singled him and two others out for participating in a massive gathering on U.S. Forest Service land in 2000, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Barry Adams' arguments that he was selectively prosecuted, and rejected his contention that the regulations prohibiting such a gathering are unconstitutional. Adams and two other Rainbow Family members were cited by the Forest Service for failing to obtain a permit for holding a gathering that brought an estimated 23,000 members of the counterculture group to Montana's Big Hole Valley in 2000....
U.S. Forest Service Employees, Other Conspirators Sued by Marina Point Development Associates Three federal employees have been accused of abusing their government offices and authority to create a complex conspiracy aimed at scuttling a Big Bear Lake development in which they had undisclosed personal interests, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 3 in U.S. District Court, Central District, Western Division. Gene Zimmerman, Scott Eliason and Robin Eliason -- all employees of the U.S. Forest Service -- are named as co-conspirators in the lawsuit brought by Marina Point Development Associates, the landowner of a 12.5-acre development site and marina on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. The lawsuit alleges the three -- along with one other principal member of a purported environmental group called "Friends of Fawnskin" and a number of "John Does" to provide for additional people to be named as more evidence is gathered -- defrauded Marina Point Development in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by attempting to illegally stop the project that was under construction in order to advance their private interests....
Salvage logging rules face new suit The U.S. Forest Service is abusing federal fire salvage logging rules to harvest living, old-growth timber where a wildfire swept through the Malheur National Forest in July 2002, according to a federal lawsuit by conservationists. The League of Wilderness Defenders filed the suit last week in Portland. It challenges the Bush administration's rules for salvaging burned timber, claiming they are unsound and are being applied illegally. The suit says the Forest Service approved timber cutting for the sensitive area without proper environmental studies. It charges the agency with ignoring the effects cutting would have on threatened bull trout and other wildlife. It asks that the rules for salvage logging -- a pillar of President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative -- be set aside because they didn't undergo environmental analysis....
Vocal biologist fired from wildlife agency The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has fired a biologist who publicly accused the agency of using bad science to approve construction projects in panther habitat. Andrew Eller, a 17-year veteran of the wildlife service, received a letter on Friday telling him the service was going ahead with its plan to fire him, effective immediately. The service said he was consistently late in completing his work and had engaged in unprofessional exchanges with the public. The decision was expected, since the service had notified Eller in July that it was moving to end his employment....
Fish and Wildlife Service delays panther protection plan The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delayed the adoption of a plan designed to protect Florida panthers from encroaching development. The agency decided to hold off so it can hire an outside contractor to review disputed science that was used in part to make the plan, spokesman Bert Byers said. That will delay the strategy indefinitely, he said. The plan was completed in 2002 by a team of 11 panther experts. Since then, an independent scientific review team issued a scathing report on some of the science used by the agency....
Two endangered whooping cranes found injured in Kansas Two of the world's roughly 500 whooping cranes have been found injured in fields near the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Kansas Department of Wildlife are trying to find out how the birds were injured. One has a broken wing and the other had a leg that had to be removed. Refuge manager David Hilley said the cranes, which are endangered, were found by farmers Saturday on two different tracts of land three miles from the refuge....
School agrees to tread lightly on lizard-inhabited territory The people behind the Coachella Valley’s first Catholic high school agreed to accommodate a tiny lizard when they build on a site in Thousand Palms. Last week, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved a fast-tracked building plan for Xavier College Preparatory School and school officials agreed to cooperate on an effort to locate a potential flood control project in the area. The flood control project, if it isn’t done right, could disrupt sand flowing to the habitat of the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard....
Workers fill motel rooms, but some sectors struggle With the boom of oil and gas exploration in the area, workers needing temporary places to live are gobbling up motel rooms like cheap gas. An area once a tourist destination and stopover has become a mini-city for rig workers coming for days, weeks or months at a time to help in the gas fields and make good money. By some estimates, motels usually seeing 50 percent year-round occupancy are now enjoying rates around 93 percent. Of course, it's not just oil and gas workers staying in Pinedale's hotels. Hunters and tourists still use the rooms, but not to the degree they used to, Pfaff said....
Growth strains social services The Pinedale Clinic is just one of the many social services in the area feeling the squeeze because of more people to serve. Most of the population comes from oil and gas workers; others trickle in with first and second homes. Mayor Skinner's budget has ballooned from $2.2 million in 1994 to nearly $10 million this year. As the seat of Sublette County, Pinedale's population rose 3.3 percent between 2002 and 2003, making it the fourth-fastest growing town in the state. The county's population jumped 7.6 percent from 2000 to 2003, reaching 6,368. The town's property tax revenues, for example, rose from just $36,000 on an 8-mill levy in 1994 to $107,000 this year on the same levy rate. Sales tax coming back to the town went from $118,000 in 1994 to $1.6 million this year. Skinner said the boom started with the gas industry, and a lot of the revenues will go to build infrastructure to maintain the increased population....
Change in the skies Walter Lowry, director of corporate and community relations with Encana Corp., said his company recognizes the problems of pollution and has installed air quality monitors in the Jonah Field to monitor emissions. Ron Hogan, Pinedale Project operations manager for Questar Inc., said his company is looking at extensive pipelines in its drilling area to pipe water and condensate in and out of the drilling locations. That would eliminate 25,000 truck trips per year -- significantly reducing dust, emissions and traffic -- and some flaring, or intentional burning of natural gas that has impurities. Still, people like Walker and lifelong Pinedale resident Leslie Rozier are worried....
10th Circuit halts SUWA's lawsuit over seismic testing The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has been rebuffed by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a dispute over seismic exploration in Uintah County. A three-judge panel ruled last week that because a two-year permit the Bureau of Land Management issued to a Houston-based energy company expired last month, SUWA's lawsuit challenging the BLM's decision to allow the company to test for oil and gas reserves was rendered moot. Veritas DGC received seismic testing authorization from the BLM in October 2002, with SUWA filing suit against Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton two months later....
Groups seek to exclude parcels from BLM auction Environmentalists are fighting a federal auction today of 48,076 acres of Colorado public land for oil and gas drilling. Of the leases to the 61 parcels to be auctioned, the groups want the Bureau of Land Management to remove 20 parcels, or 15,000 acres, that they say are wildlife and rare- species habitats. Drilling would create roads and wells in areas used by hunters and hikers, including Granite Creek, Sagebrush Pillows and McKenna Peak, the groups note. Some of these areas lie within an area that Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, wants to be protected as wilderness. Congress has not acted on her proposal in the past six years....
Two protesters defend nature au naturel A luncheon meeting of The Scripps Research Institute board of directors at The Breakers resort was stripped of all decorum Monday when two topless women surprised the diners in the Seafood Bar with a 30-second chant to protest the science center's planned expansion to a Palm Beach County wetlands area. "Nature yes, biotech no," sang out Lynne Purvis and Veronica Robleto, both 24, who described themselves as environmental activists from Lake Worth. Those words also were painted on their bodies....
Study Says Polar Bears Could Face Extinction Global warming could cause polar bears to go extinct by the end of the century by eroding the sea ice that sustains them, according to the most comprehensive international assessment ever done of Arctic climate change. The thinning of sea ice -- which is projected to shrink by at least half by the end of the century and could disappear altogether, according to some computer models -- could determine the fate of many other key Arctic species, said the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, the product of four years of work by more than 300 scientists....
Split verdict After the election, photographers and hunters can still bait Alaskan black bears with sweets and grease, loggers can chop two Oregon forests, Coloradans will get more power from renewable energy and Utah voters won't gain more open space. In a national election won by conservatives, the results show that traditional powers in the West — sportsmen, extractive industries and sagebrush rebels — continue to wield clout at the ballot box, though environmentalists moved some of their agenda forward....
Navajo voters pass gaming, but Navajo government had already approved it Proving the third time is the charm, the Navajo people said yes in a referendum Tuesday to allow gaming. The vote was 24,983 in favor and 16,576 opposed, according to unofficial results released by the Navajo Nation Election Office. The Navajo people voted against gaming in 1994 and 1997 referendums. Tuesday’s vote, although significant, carried no legal weight since the Navajo government had already authorized gaming within the To’hajiilee satellite chapter outside Albuquerque in 2000 and approved a Navajo gaming ordinance — making gaming legal reservationwide — in 2001. The country’s largest tribe also signed a gaming compact with Arizona in 2002 and one with New Mexico in 2003....
Water coalition in making Colorado and two other Western states may follow the lead of Michigan and Maryland, joining forces to create a special Rocky Mountain headwaters alliance similar to multistate coalitions that safeguard the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. The idea is to find new ways and new sources of money to protect Western rivers born high in the mountain ranges along the Continental Divide, said Jeff Crane, a hydrologist who leads a nonprofit watershed restoration effort in Colorado's Gunnison River Basin. During the past 15 months, several river conservation groups in Colorado, as well as from Utah and Montana, have lobbied state officials and their congressional representatives in Washington, D.C., seeking backing for the project....
Study ties drought, ocean temperature Emerging science is beginning to draw stronger connections between ocean surface temperatures and the current drought draining much of the West, a panel at the Geological Society of America's annual convention was told Monday. Gregory J. McCabe, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, said new research by his agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration identifies a direct relationship between warm North Atlantic surface temperatures and Western droughts....
Court allows challenge of river pact to proceed The Colorado Supreme Court refused to intervene Monday in a dispute over how much water should remain in the Gunnison River in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The ruling means a federal lawsuit filed by environmentalists can proceed. The lawsuit claims an agreement between state and federal authorities leaves too little water in the river to support fish and other wildlife. State and federal officials defend the agreement, saying it will protect the 14-mile national park and preserve river water for other uses....
The Great Southwest Salt Saga think you know how the West was won, but you don't. It was not won with guns, railroads, or telegraph lines. These advances would have been pointless without something much more fundamental: water. Or, to be more precise, our ability to dam, pump, and channel water to farms and cities hundreds of miles away from any river. There are more than 20 dams in the Colorado River Basin, and the combined system constitutes one of the largest public works projects in the history of mankind. Without it, Los Angeles would be just a pit stop along Highway 1, and US produce bins would go empty every winter....
Hold on, cowboys In simpler times, rodeo organizers dragged mean animals out of feed lots and sale yards, talked gullible cowboys into climbing on, and then watched what happened. This approach worked especially well down in Oklahoma and Texas, where cattle roamed so much range that they were mostly mixed-blood maverick breeds, full of the wildness that makes bulls buck. But by the time Kish got into the business in the early 1980s, California ranchers had bred all the buck out of their cattle, concentrating on high-end dairy and beef breeds. The only breeder of bucking stock in the state had died, and only three of his animals were known to be living. When Kish contacted the owner of one, he learned the bull had just been canned, or slaughtered for meat, and when he tried to buy the second, the owner abruptly bailed on the deal. "So it came down to basically one animal," Kish says....
It's All Trew: Everyone had Model T tale, with or without the car The Model T was born Oct. 1, 1908, when Henry Ford introduced a simple, no-frills machine designed for the masses who still rode in horse-powered conveyances. Some astute Ford dealers took in buggies and teams as trade-ins for the initial purchase. These early models had no speedometer, starter, temperature gauge or bumpers. They also placed the steering wheel on the left and used a hand-throttle. Parts were few and easy to buy. The mechanical devices were simple so anyone could repair them. Wide running boards allowed plenty of room for toolboxes and items needed for patching flats. The Model T reigned king of autos for 19 years....
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Enviros seek to intervene in wolf lawsuit Environmentalists on Monday asked to become involved in a lawsuit contesting the federal government's rejection of Wyoming's plan for managing wolves. Lack of an acceptable Wyoming management plan has held up removal of the wolves from federal protection so Idaho and Montana, as well as Wyoming, can begin managing the animals themselves. The lawsuit was filed in September by more than two dozen groups critical of federal wolf protection, and it is similar to the state suit filed in April that contested the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's rejection of the Wyoming plan to manage wolves once they are no longer protected under the Endangered Species Act....
Lawsuit challenges road plan as bad for bears A lawsuit by two environmental groups charges U.S. Forest Service road plans will do little to help grizzly bears regain numbers in the Cabinet/Yaak and Selkirk areas of Montana and Idaho. The Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contend the road plans recently adopted will foster secure habitat for grizzlies. The suit charges the new road management strategy for the Kootenai, Lolo and Idaho Panhandle national forests does not go far enough in closing or reclaiming forest roads to protect bears....
Scorched-earth Policy Continues in Northern California Six years and $600,000 worth of environmental assessments were not enough for three environmental organizations that brought lawsuits and appeals against the Beaver Creek Project on the Scott River District. Apparently, the environmental assessments, which measure several feet thick, were also not enough for U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. who ultimately blocked the timber-thinning project. Klamath Forest Alliance, led by Felice Pace, the Environmental Protection Information Center, called EPIC, and Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands sued the Forest Service and ultimately won, when Judge Damrell ruled in their favor three weeks ago. The project had been in litigation since June of 2003....
Forest Service conference to look back at last 100 years A diverse group of people interested and involved in the management of national forests are coming together in Missoula to discuss the Forest Service's first 100 years of existence. The conference will begin Tuesday morning and run through Wednesday evening and feature speakers from the Forest Service, forest advocacy groups, timber industry leaders and professors from the University of Montana. On July 1, 1905, the Forest Service was formed from ideas conceived at the first Conservation Congress held only months earlier, said Paula Nelson, media officer for region one. This conference is an attempt for people from all interest groups to discuss how well management of the public forests was executed the past 100 years....
Man objects to pilot's posthumous medals A man whose wife died in a plane crash in the Montana wilderness criticized Gov. Judy Martz on Monday for deciding to posthumously award the pilot a medal. "His negligence, recklessness and carelessness on that day — and disregard for the weather and flying in the mountains — had disregard for the people on board," Bryant told The Associated Press. "It's pretty callous of the governor's office to just say this guy is a hero without looking into the whole situation," he said. "That plane should never have left the ground."....
Court denies rainbow gathering organizer's appeal of conviction The federal government did not violate the rights of a Rainbow Family member when it singled him and two others out for participating in a massive gathering on U.S. Forest Service land in 2000, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Barry Adams' arguments that he was selectively prosecuted, and rejected his contention that the regulations prohibiting such a gathering are unconstitutional. Adams and two other Rainbow Family members were cited by the Forest Service for failing to obtain a permit for holding a gathering that brought an estimated 23,000 members of the counterculture group to Montana's Big Hole Valley in 2000....
U.S. Forest Service Employees, Other Conspirators Sued by Marina Point Development Associates Three federal employees have been accused of abusing their government offices and authority to create a complex conspiracy aimed at scuttling a Big Bear Lake development in which they had undisclosed personal interests, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 3 in U.S. District Court, Central District, Western Division. Gene Zimmerman, Scott Eliason and Robin Eliason -- all employees of the U.S. Forest Service -- are named as co-conspirators in the lawsuit brought by Marina Point Development Associates, the landowner of a 12.5-acre development site and marina on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. The lawsuit alleges the three -- along with one other principal member of a purported environmental group called "Friends of Fawnskin" and a number of "John Does" to provide for additional people to be named as more evidence is gathered -- defrauded Marina Point Development in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by attempting to illegally stop the project that was under construction in order to advance their private interests....
Salvage logging rules face new suit The U.S. Forest Service is abusing federal fire salvage logging rules to harvest living, old-growth timber where a wildfire swept through the Malheur National Forest in July 2002, according to a federal lawsuit by conservationists. The League of Wilderness Defenders filed the suit last week in Portland. It challenges the Bush administration's rules for salvaging burned timber, claiming they are unsound and are being applied illegally. The suit says the Forest Service approved timber cutting for the sensitive area without proper environmental studies. It charges the agency with ignoring the effects cutting would have on threatened bull trout and other wildlife. It asks that the rules for salvage logging -- a pillar of President Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative -- be set aside because they didn't undergo environmental analysis....
Vocal biologist fired from wildlife agency The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has fired a biologist who publicly accused the agency of using bad science to approve construction projects in panther habitat. Andrew Eller, a 17-year veteran of the wildlife service, received a letter on Friday telling him the service was going ahead with its plan to fire him, effective immediately. The service said he was consistently late in completing his work and had engaged in unprofessional exchanges with the public. The decision was expected, since the service had notified Eller in July that it was moving to end his employment....
Fish and Wildlife Service delays panther protection plan The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delayed the adoption of a plan designed to protect Florida panthers from encroaching development. The agency decided to hold off so it can hire an outside contractor to review disputed science that was used in part to make the plan, spokesman Bert Byers said. That will delay the strategy indefinitely, he said. The plan was completed in 2002 by a team of 11 panther experts. Since then, an independent scientific review team issued a scathing report on some of the science used by the agency....
Two endangered whooping cranes found injured in Kansas Two of the world's roughly 500 whooping cranes have been found injured in fields near the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Kansas Department of Wildlife are trying to find out how the birds were injured. One has a broken wing and the other had a leg that had to be removed. Refuge manager David Hilley said the cranes, which are endangered, were found by farmers Saturday on two different tracts of land three miles from the refuge....
School agrees to tread lightly on lizard-inhabited territory The people behind the Coachella Valley’s first Catholic high school agreed to accommodate a tiny lizard when they build on a site in Thousand Palms. Last week, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved a fast-tracked building plan for Xavier College Preparatory School and school officials agreed to cooperate on an effort to locate a potential flood control project in the area. The flood control project, if it isn’t done right, could disrupt sand flowing to the habitat of the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard....
Workers fill motel rooms, but some sectors struggle With the boom of oil and gas exploration in the area, workers needing temporary places to live are gobbling up motel rooms like cheap gas. An area once a tourist destination and stopover has become a mini-city for rig workers coming for days, weeks or months at a time to help in the gas fields and make good money. By some estimates, motels usually seeing 50 percent year-round occupancy are now enjoying rates around 93 percent. Of course, it's not just oil and gas workers staying in Pinedale's hotels. Hunters and tourists still use the rooms, but not to the degree they used to, Pfaff said....
Growth strains social services The Pinedale Clinic is just one of the many social services in the area feeling the squeeze because of more people to serve. Most of the population comes from oil and gas workers; others trickle in with first and second homes. Mayor Skinner's budget has ballooned from $2.2 million in 1994 to nearly $10 million this year. As the seat of Sublette County, Pinedale's population rose 3.3 percent between 2002 and 2003, making it the fourth-fastest growing town in the state. The county's population jumped 7.6 percent from 2000 to 2003, reaching 6,368. The town's property tax revenues, for example, rose from just $36,000 on an 8-mill levy in 1994 to $107,000 this year on the same levy rate. Sales tax coming back to the town went from $118,000 in 1994 to $1.6 million this year. Skinner said the boom started with the gas industry, and a lot of the revenues will go to build infrastructure to maintain the increased population....
Change in the skies Walter Lowry, director of corporate and community relations with Encana Corp., said his company recognizes the problems of pollution and has installed air quality monitors in the Jonah Field to monitor emissions. Ron Hogan, Pinedale Project operations manager for Questar Inc., said his company is looking at extensive pipelines in its drilling area to pipe water and condensate in and out of the drilling locations. That would eliminate 25,000 truck trips per year -- significantly reducing dust, emissions and traffic -- and some flaring, or intentional burning of natural gas that has impurities. Still, people like Walker and lifelong Pinedale resident Leslie Rozier are worried....
10th Circuit halts SUWA's lawsuit over seismic testing The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has been rebuffed by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a dispute over seismic exploration in Uintah County. A three-judge panel ruled last week that because a two-year permit the Bureau of Land Management issued to a Houston-based energy company expired last month, SUWA's lawsuit challenging the BLM's decision to allow the company to test for oil and gas reserves was rendered moot. Veritas DGC received seismic testing authorization from the BLM in October 2002, with SUWA filing suit against Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton two months later....
Groups seek to exclude parcels from BLM auction Environmentalists are fighting a federal auction today of 48,076 acres of Colorado public land for oil and gas drilling. Of the leases to the 61 parcels to be auctioned, the groups want the Bureau of Land Management to remove 20 parcels, or 15,000 acres, that they say are wildlife and rare- species habitats. Drilling would create roads and wells in areas used by hunters and hikers, including Granite Creek, Sagebrush Pillows and McKenna Peak, the groups note. Some of these areas lie within an area that Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, wants to be protected as wilderness. Congress has not acted on her proposal in the past six years....
Two protesters defend nature au naturel A luncheon meeting of The Scripps Research Institute board of directors at The Breakers resort was stripped of all decorum Monday when two topless women surprised the diners in the Seafood Bar with a 30-second chant to protest the science center's planned expansion to a Palm Beach County wetlands area. "Nature yes, biotech no," sang out Lynne Purvis and Veronica Robleto, both 24, who described themselves as environmental activists from Lake Worth. Those words also were painted on their bodies....
Study Says Polar Bears Could Face Extinction Global warming could cause polar bears to go extinct by the end of the century by eroding the sea ice that sustains them, according to the most comprehensive international assessment ever done of Arctic climate change. The thinning of sea ice -- which is projected to shrink by at least half by the end of the century and could disappear altogether, according to some computer models -- could determine the fate of many other key Arctic species, said the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, the product of four years of work by more than 300 scientists....
Split verdict After the election, photographers and hunters can still bait Alaskan black bears with sweets and grease, loggers can chop two Oregon forests, Coloradans will get more power from renewable energy and Utah voters won't gain more open space. In a national election won by conservatives, the results show that traditional powers in the West — sportsmen, extractive industries and sagebrush rebels — continue to wield clout at the ballot box, though environmentalists moved some of their agenda forward....
Navajo voters pass gaming, but Navajo government had already approved it Proving the third time is the charm, the Navajo people said yes in a referendum Tuesday to allow gaming. The vote was 24,983 in favor and 16,576 opposed, according to unofficial results released by the Navajo Nation Election Office. The Navajo people voted against gaming in 1994 and 1997 referendums. Tuesday’s vote, although significant, carried no legal weight since the Navajo government had already authorized gaming within the To’hajiilee satellite chapter outside Albuquerque in 2000 and approved a Navajo gaming ordinance — making gaming legal reservationwide — in 2001. The country’s largest tribe also signed a gaming compact with Arizona in 2002 and one with New Mexico in 2003....
Water coalition in making Colorado and two other Western states may follow the lead of Michigan and Maryland, joining forces to create a special Rocky Mountain headwaters alliance similar to multistate coalitions that safeguard the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. The idea is to find new ways and new sources of money to protect Western rivers born high in the mountain ranges along the Continental Divide, said Jeff Crane, a hydrologist who leads a nonprofit watershed restoration effort in Colorado's Gunnison River Basin. During the past 15 months, several river conservation groups in Colorado, as well as from Utah and Montana, have lobbied state officials and their congressional representatives in Washington, D.C., seeking backing for the project....
Study ties drought, ocean temperature Emerging science is beginning to draw stronger connections between ocean surface temperatures and the current drought draining much of the West, a panel at the Geological Society of America's annual convention was told Monday. Gregory J. McCabe, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, said new research by his agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration identifies a direct relationship between warm North Atlantic surface temperatures and Western droughts....
Court allows challenge of river pact to proceed The Colorado Supreme Court refused to intervene Monday in a dispute over how much water should remain in the Gunnison River in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The ruling means a federal lawsuit filed by environmentalists can proceed. The lawsuit claims an agreement between state and federal authorities leaves too little water in the river to support fish and other wildlife. State and federal officials defend the agreement, saying it will protect the 14-mile national park and preserve river water for other uses....
The Great Southwest Salt Saga think you know how the West was won, but you don't. It was not won with guns, railroads, or telegraph lines. These advances would have been pointless without something much more fundamental: water. Or, to be more precise, our ability to dam, pump, and channel water to farms and cities hundreds of miles away from any river. There are more than 20 dams in the Colorado River Basin, and the combined system constitutes one of the largest public works projects in the history of mankind. Without it, Los Angeles would be just a pit stop along Highway 1, and US produce bins would go empty every winter....
Hold on, cowboys In simpler times, rodeo organizers dragged mean animals out of feed lots and sale yards, talked gullible cowboys into climbing on, and then watched what happened. This approach worked especially well down in Oklahoma and Texas, where cattle roamed so much range that they were mostly mixed-blood maverick breeds, full of the wildness that makes bulls buck. But by the time Kish got into the business in the early 1980s, California ranchers had bred all the buck out of their cattle, concentrating on high-end dairy and beef breeds. The only breeder of bucking stock in the state had died, and only three of his animals were known to be living. When Kish contacted the owner of one, he learned the bull had just been canned, or slaughtered for meat, and when he tried to buy the second, the owner abruptly bailed on the deal. "So it came down to basically one animal," Kish says....
It's All Trew: Everyone had Model T tale, with or without the car The Model T was born Oct. 1, 1908, when Henry Ford introduced a simple, no-frills machine designed for the masses who still rode in horse-powered conveyances. Some astute Ford dealers took in buggies and teams as trade-ins for the initial purchase. These early models had no speedometer, starter, temperature gauge or bumpers. They also placed the steering wheel on the left and used a hand-throttle. Parts were few and easy to buy. The mechanical devices were simple so anyone could repair them. Wide running boards allowed plenty of room for toolboxes and items needed for patching flats. The Model T reigned king of autos for 19 years....
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Monday, November 08, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Enviros oppose shrinking grizzly zone Environmentalists are opposing a proposal to shrink the zone where grizzly bears would be allowed to roam in Wyoming. Under a bear management plan approved in 2002, the state would allow grizzlies to expand throughout the greater Yellowstone ecosystem provided that the habitat was biologically suitable and the bears' presence was acceptable to people. The plan is to go into effect when the federal government removes grizzlies from Endangered Species Act protection. Now the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has determined that the plan is too vague and relies too much on private property and other unsuitable habitat....
Unhappy fate awaits park elk The National Park Service is facing nothing but unattractive options for disposal of the surplus elk at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. As told last Sunday by the Tribune's Lauren Donovan, the park already holds nearly twice as many elk (600) as the ideal population (360). With no predators for control, their numbers will double within three years. The old solution -- shipping the surplus out of state -- is not available because of a quarantine resulting from chronic wasting disease elsewhere. Letting the surplus establish itself outside the park is opposed by surrounding ranchers justifiably worried about their grass, hay and row crops....
Rare birds struggle to survive Biologists have released more than 25,000 masked bobwhite quail in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge since 1985, when the federal government bought a ranch for nearly $9 million and booted cows from the grasslands southwest of Tucson. But within a year of being set free, more than 90 percent of the endangered birds were dead, most of them picked off by hawks. Today, 100 to 200 survive in the wild. Now, officials have decided to halt releases of the quail so they can figure out what's going wrong. The reintroduction program has long been held up as a costly federal boondoggle by conservative critics and neighboring ranchers....
Domestic sheep posing threat to bighorns in wild Four months ago, more than 24 domestic sheep were released into the national forest in the Skalkaho Creek drainage and a warrant has been issued for a California couple. In October, after some delays in the investigation, a $10,000 bench warrant was issued for the Reiffs, charging them with 24 counts each of abandonment of sheep and animals running at large - one count for each animal known to have been released. The fear is the domestic sheep could inter-breed with the wild sheep, out compete the bighorns for range and feed, and pass along diseases to the wild herd. Since May, FWP has shot 13 of the sheep, said Darrah....
Editorial: Endangered weeds The absurdity of the biodiversity movement was never more evident than Wednesday, when Las Vegas officials learned the federal government is moving to protect some 8,000 acres from development because of the presence of weeds. Much of the land, which extends across the far northern valley from North Las Vegas west into Las Vegas, was slated for auction to home builders in February. However, botanists found the Las Vegas bearpoppy, a scrub protected under state law, and a previously unknown form of the kindling known as the Las Vegas buckwheat. "It's a brand new variety based on the genetics of the plant," U.S. Bureau of Land Management environmental protection specialist Jeff Steinmetz said of the buckwheat. And under the Endangered Species Act, the government can move to preserve every subspecies and sub-subspecies of plant and wildlife because of differences detectable only at the genetic level. A rural squirrel with a fleck of red in its tail becomes "endangered," while its plentiful, nearly identical cousins beg for nuts in the city park and spawn future generations of road kill....
Oil booms anew on Eastern Plains The tantalizing signs of Colorado's next oil boom can be seen in the lunchtime bustle at Rachael Nicar's formerly shuttered Crestwood Cafe. They're seen in the rising occupancy levels at John Song's Akron Motel. They're seen in the hopeful eyes of Washington County Commissioner Quentin Vance, who has watched the county's fiscal health deteriorate since the last oil boom of the early 1980s. And they're seen especially around the sage-dotted prairie of northeastern Colorado, where a series of drilling rigs probe around the clock to tap a nearly forgotten resource that's suddenly in vogue again. Oil is back....
BLM trims wild horse herd Ken Martin watches the wild horses on McCullough Peaks. He keeps his distance so he does not disturb them. He names the horses. He knows the dominant stallions and their favorite mares. He knows the good fathers, the wannabe mothers and the precocious colts. Martin turned his pastime of watching wild horses into a business three years ago and has since guided tourists into the 110,000-acre McCullough Peaks management area. But Martin will have to work harder to find the horses this summer, as 80 percent of the wild horses have been removed by the Bureau of Land Management to comply with the Cody Field Office's resource management plan....
Under pressure, BLM to remove more wild horses in Nevada The Bureau of Land Management has moved closer to its goal of reducing wild horses and burros to a number that Nevada's ranges can sustain. That's the word from BLM Nevada Director Bob Abbey, who says the agency plans to reduce the herds to "appropriate management levels" by 2006 if it gets needed funding. He says the agency wants to reduce Nevada's wild horse numbers from the current 19,000 to 14,500....
G.O.P. Plans to Give Environment Rules a Free-Market Tilt With the elections over, Congress and the Bush administration are moving ahead with ambitious environmental agendas that include revamping signature laws on air pollution and endangered species and reviving a moribund energy bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. In addition, the administration intends to accelerate conservation efforts by distributing billions of dollars to private landowners for the preservation of wetlands and wildlife habitats. The White House also plans to announce next month a new effort to clean up the Great Lakes....
Editorial: Environmental issues are a concern for all of us Among those most disappointed in Tuesday's presidential election results were New Mexico's dedicated advocates for the environment, conservation and public lands. After hearing that pro-environment, Democratic candidate John Kerry had conceded Wednesday, some wept. All expressed frustration at facing four more years of the anti-environment policies of President Bush. As Tribune Reporter Ollie Reed Jr. wrote Thursday, Nov. 4, in "Woeful environmentalists vow to keep fighting," groups such as the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance had hoped to defeat Bush and restore science-based environmental regulation and public-lands stewardship to the national agenda....
Snowmaking tool or hocus-pocus? Vail Mountain swears by it. And so does its nearby sister resort, Beaver Creek. Cloud seeding, while an inexact science, might offer the two ski areas a far cheaper way to bring on the white stuff than the costly, water-guzzling practice of snowmaking. But only a handful of Colorado ski resorts attempt to cover all their bases - or their slopes - by doing both....
Big Bird legend haunts witnesses For decades, bird lovers have flocked to the Rio Grande Valley to see a large variety of their feathered friends. But in 1976, hunters scoured the area trying to win a reward for the capture of a creature which became known to residents here as Big Bird. For about two months in the mid-1970s, Big Bird — and we’re not talking about the friendly tall, yellow bird that loves children on Sesame Street — terrorized Valley residents. The 5-foot-tall bird was described as “horrible-looking,” according to The Monitor’s archives. Its wings were large enough to be folded over its body and it had large, dark red eyes attached to a gray, gorilla-like face. Its head was bald and it made a loud, shrill sound through its 6-inch long beak. Tom Waldon claimed to have found its tracks on Jan. 2, 1976, near his home in Harlingen. The three-toed tracks measured 8 inches across and pressed an inch and a half into the ground....
Many county fairs finding tough financial times As spreading cities flood farmlands and farmlands become threatened, so too are county fairs, with their sawdust and hucksters, livestock and carnival rides, rodeos and proud 4-H and Grange displays. Fairs increasingly are running in the red, and having to do unpopular things to survive. Across Oregon and the nation fairs and rodeos are falling victims of apathy, passed over by people who grew up in tract housing, not doing farm chores....
Restoration slow-going at historic ranch house By most accounts, the historic Warner-Carrillo adobe ranch house remains standing due to an astounding combination of favorable conditions and luck. Doña Vicenta Sepúlveda de Carrillo built the home in 1857. But historians disagree about whether Carrillo built the house on top of remnants of another house owned by land baron Jonathan Trumbull Warner. The home was built near a major crossroads of the southern overland trail during the Gold Rush days of 1848-51. Warner capitalized on the steady stream of pioneers by selling them everything from clothes to cattle. Van Wormer said about 200 people, overjoyed to see green pastures and trees after trekking thousands of miles through the deserts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and eastern California, stopped to camp near Warner's house every night. Ranchers and cowboys continued to live in the house until about 1960, and the abandoned home and barn have steadily deteriorated since....
Strong As Rope In May 2003, a mild stroke threatened to throw Stran Smith out of the loop of pro rodeo stardom. At the time, Smith, a six-time National Finals Rodeo tie-down roping qualifier, experienced sluured speech, then lost his ability to talk for 24 hours. His speech slowly returned, and medical tests revealed he had a heart defect. After undergoing surgery to correct the atrial septal defect at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Smith was back on the rodeo circuit in less than two months....
He's a bull rider with a different set of specs Matt Austin is among the top bull riders in the world. Yet he doesn't strike you as someone who would climb aboard a 2,000-pound bull and try to ride it. With his wire-rimmed glasses, he could more easily pass for a Rhodes scholar. In fact, his peers affectionately call him Poindexter, after the bookish character in Felix the Cat cartoons. A cowboy hat replaces the mortarboard....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Can Thanksgiving turkey ever be replaced? We are gathered just outside the fair barn near The Hickory Hut in Salina, Kan., to report on the debate that has divided the nation: Which entre should be chosen as the national Thanksgiving dish? Turkey, the defending champion, is represented by Tom, of course. The challenger, representing french toast, is Henr. Patty Parsley of the Food Channel is our mediator....
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Enviros oppose shrinking grizzly zone Environmentalists are opposing a proposal to shrink the zone where grizzly bears would be allowed to roam in Wyoming. Under a bear management plan approved in 2002, the state would allow grizzlies to expand throughout the greater Yellowstone ecosystem provided that the habitat was biologically suitable and the bears' presence was acceptable to people. The plan is to go into effect when the federal government removes grizzlies from Endangered Species Act protection. Now the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has determined that the plan is too vague and relies too much on private property and other unsuitable habitat....
Unhappy fate awaits park elk The National Park Service is facing nothing but unattractive options for disposal of the surplus elk at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. As told last Sunday by the Tribune's Lauren Donovan, the park already holds nearly twice as many elk (600) as the ideal population (360). With no predators for control, their numbers will double within three years. The old solution -- shipping the surplus out of state -- is not available because of a quarantine resulting from chronic wasting disease elsewhere. Letting the surplus establish itself outside the park is opposed by surrounding ranchers justifiably worried about their grass, hay and row crops....
Rare birds struggle to survive Biologists have released more than 25,000 masked bobwhite quail in the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge since 1985, when the federal government bought a ranch for nearly $9 million and booted cows from the grasslands southwest of Tucson. But within a year of being set free, more than 90 percent of the endangered birds were dead, most of them picked off by hawks. Today, 100 to 200 survive in the wild. Now, officials have decided to halt releases of the quail so they can figure out what's going wrong. The reintroduction program has long been held up as a costly federal boondoggle by conservative critics and neighboring ranchers....
Domestic sheep posing threat to bighorns in wild Four months ago, more than 24 domestic sheep were released into the national forest in the Skalkaho Creek drainage and a warrant has been issued for a California couple. In October, after some delays in the investigation, a $10,000 bench warrant was issued for the Reiffs, charging them with 24 counts each of abandonment of sheep and animals running at large - one count for each animal known to have been released. The fear is the domestic sheep could inter-breed with the wild sheep, out compete the bighorns for range and feed, and pass along diseases to the wild herd. Since May, FWP has shot 13 of the sheep, said Darrah....
Editorial: Endangered weeds The absurdity of the biodiversity movement was never more evident than Wednesday, when Las Vegas officials learned the federal government is moving to protect some 8,000 acres from development because of the presence of weeds. Much of the land, which extends across the far northern valley from North Las Vegas west into Las Vegas, was slated for auction to home builders in February. However, botanists found the Las Vegas bearpoppy, a scrub protected under state law, and a previously unknown form of the kindling known as the Las Vegas buckwheat. "It's a brand new variety based on the genetics of the plant," U.S. Bureau of Land Management environmental protection specialist Jeff Steinmetz said of the buckwheat. And under the Endangered Species Act, the government can move to preserve every subspecies and sub-subspecies of plant and wildlife because of differences detectable only at the genetic level. A rural squirrel with a fleck of red in its tail becomes "endangered," while its plentiful, nearly identical cousins beg for nuts in the city park and spawn future generations of road kill....
Oil booms anew on Eastern Plains The tantalizing signs of Colorado's next oil boom can be seen in the lunchtime bustle at Rachael Nicar's formerly shuttered Crestwood Cafe. They're seen in the rising occupancy levels at John Song's Akron Motel. They're seen in the hopeful eyes of Washington County Commissioner Quentin Vance, who has watched the county's fiscal health deteriorate since the last oil boom of the early 1980s. And they're seen especially around the sage-dotted prairie of northeastern Colorado, where a series of drilling rigs probe around the clock to tap a nearly forgotten resource that's suddenly in vogue again. Oil is back....
BLM trims wild horse herd Ken Martin watches the wild horses on McCullough Peaks. He keeps his distance so he does not disturb them. He names the horses. He knows the dominant stallions and their favorite mares. He knows the good fathers, the wannabe mothers and the precocious colts. Martin turned his pastime of watching wild horses into a business three years ago and has since guided tourists into the 110,000-acre McCullough Peaks management area. But Martin will have to work harder to find the horses this summer, as 80 percent of the wild horses have been removed by the Bureau of Land Management to comply with the Cody Field Office's resource management plan....
Under pressure, BLM to remove more wild horses in Nevada The Bureau of Land Management has moved closer to its goal of reducing wild horses and burros to a number that Nevada's ranges can sustain. That's the word from BLM Nevada Director Bob Abbey, who says the agency plans to reduce the herds to "appropriate management levels" by 2006 if it gets needed funding. He says the agency wants to reduce Nevada's wild horse numbers from the current 19,000 to 14,500....
G.O.P. Plans to Give Environment Rules a Free-Market Tilt With the elections over, Congress and the Bush administration are moving ahead with ambitious environmental agendas that include revamping signature laws on air pollution and endangered species and reviving a moribund energy bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. In addition, the administration intends to accelerate conservation efforts by distributing billions of dollars to private landowners for the preservation of wetlands and wildlife habitats. The White House also plans to announce next month a new effort to clean up the Great Lakes....
Editorial: Environmental issues are a concern for all of us Among those most disappointed in Tuesday's presidential election results were New Mexico's dedicated advocates for the environment, conservation and public lands. After hearing that pro-environment, Democratic candidate John Kerry had conceded Wednesday, some wept. All expressed frustration at facing four more years of the anti-environment policies of President Bush. As Tribune Reporter Ollie Reed Jr. wrote Thursday, Nov. 4, in "Woeful environmentalists vow to keep fighting," groups such as the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club and the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance had hoped to defeat Bush and restore science-based environmental regulation and public-lands stewardship to the national agenda....
Snowmaking tool or hocus-pocus? Vail Mountain swears by it. And so does its nearby sister resort, Beaver Creek. Cloud seeding, while an inexact science, might offer the two ski areas a far cheaper way to bring on the white stuff than the costly, water-guzzling practice of snowmaking. But only a handful of Colorado ski resorts attempt to cover all their bases - or their slopes - by doing both....
Big Bird legend haunts witnesses For decades, bird lovers have flocked to the Rio Grande Valley to see a large variety of their feathered friends. But in 1976, hunters scoured the area trying to win a reward for the capture of a creature which became known to residents here as Big Bird. For about two months in the mid-1970s, Big Bird — and we’re not talking about the friendly tall, yellow bird that loves children on Sesame Street — terrorized Valley residents. The 5-foot-tall bird was described as “horrible-looking,” according to The Monitor’s archives. Its wings were large enough to be folded over its body and it had large, dark red eyes attached to a gray, gorilla-like face. Its head was bald and it made a loud, shrill sound through its 6-inch long beak. Tom Waldon claimed to have found its tracks on Jan. 2, 1976, near his home in Harlingen. The three-toed tracks measured 8 inches across and pressed an inch and a half into the ground....
Many county fairs finding tough financial times As spreading cities flood farmlands and farmlands become threatened, so too are county fairs, with their sawdust and hucksters, livestock and carnival rides, rodeos and proud 4-H and Grange displays. Fairs increasingly are running in the red, and having to do unpopular things to survive. Across Oregon and the nation fairs and rodeos are falling victims of apathy, passed over by people who grew up in tract housing, not doing farm chores....
Restoration slow-going at historic ranch house By most accounts, the historic Warner-Carrillo adobe ranch house remains standing due to an astounding combination of favorable conditions and luck. Doña Vicenta Sepúlveda de Carrillo built the home in 1857. But historians disagree about whether Carrillo built the house on top of remnants of another house owned by land baron Jonathan Trumbull Warner. The home was built near a major crossroads of the southern overland trail during the Gold Rush days of 1848-51. Warner capitalized on the steady stream of pioneers by selling them everything from clothes to cattle. Van Wormer said about 200 people, overjoyed to see green pastures and trees after trekking thousands of miles through the deserts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and eastern California, stopped to camp near Warner's house every night. Ranchers and cowboys continued to live in the house until about 1960, and the abandoned home and barn have steadily deteriorated since....
Strong As Rope In May 2003, a mild stroke threatened to throw Stran Smith out of the loop of pro rodeo stardom. At the time, Smith, a six-time National Finals Rodeo tie-down roping qualifier, experienced sluured speech, then lost his ability to talk for 24 hours. His speech slowly returned, and medical tests revealed he had a heart defect. After undergoing surgery to correct the atrial septal defect at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Smith was back on the rodeo circuit in less than two months....
He's a bull rider with a different set of specs Matt Austin is among the top bull riders in the world. Yet he doesn't strike you as someone who would climb aboard a 2,000-pound bull and try to ride it. With his wire-rimmed glasses, he could more easily pass for a Rhodes scholar. In fact, his peers affectionately call him Poindexter, after the bookish character in Felix the Cat cartoons. A cowboy hat replaces the mortarboard....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Can Thanksgiving turkey ever be replaced? We are gathered just outside the fair barn near The Hickory Hut in Salina, Kan., to report on the debate that has divided the nation: Which entre should be chosen as the national Thanksgiving dish? Turkey, the defending champion, is represented by Tom, of course. The challenger, representing french toast, is Henr. Patty Parsley of the Food Channel is our mediator....
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Sunday, November 07, 2004
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Cowboy Culture
I was standing on a stage, singing cowboy music at a benefit to raise money for the legal defense of Kit Laney, a rancher near the Gila Wilderness who was jailed for balking at the idea that all he had worked for, all he had built, could be taken away by the U.S. Forest Service with no scientific justification. I found it ironic that only a few years ago, I had been hired by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to perform for the 50th Anniversary of the Gila Wilderness. I've always liked the Gila area, and I've always been intrigued by Aldo Leopold, who advocated protecting it. According to his daughter, Nina Leopold, Leopold loved cowboy music, ranchers, hunting, fishing and the people of the Southwest - though he spent the majority of his career in Wisconsin. While Leopold certainly was a conservationist, he was not anti-hunting, anti-agriculture, or anti-rancher. His idea was to involve private property owners in good conservation practice - not confiscate land. He hated over-grazing, as do the vast majority of ranchers - it's their resource. As Kit Laney told me, "I have absolutely no problem with the idea of the Gila Wilderness, and meetings with the Leopold Society went well." Laney impressed me as a good man, who was being bullied for no good reason....As I sang, I looked into the faces of those present. What was going on in my mind at that moment? Why would a large group of people, not all of them in cowboy hats and boots, turn out in big numbers, to hear old cowboy songs and new ones, and pay for the experience- all in the name of a rancher who defied a court order to reduce his cattle numbers, and then refused to leave his ranch home? Were they all just a bunch of sagebrush rebel ranchers, on a tear about the government? Well, as it turned out, most of the audience present that evening were not ranchers and cowboys. But they were something bigger than that. They were members of a distinct culture- a culture that goes beyond the boundaries of the United States of America; a culture of the community of people who are involved in the life and business of grazing- or are touched by it, or find inspiration from it....
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Cowboy Culture
I was standing on a stage, singing cowboy music at a benefit to raise money for the legal defense of Kit Laney, a rancher near the Gila Wilderness who was jailed for balking at the idea that all he had worked for, all he had built, could be taken away by the U.S. Forest Service with no scientific justification. I found it ironic that only a few years ago, I had been hired by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to perform for the 50th Anniversary of the Gila Wilderness. I've always liked the Gila area, and I've always been intrigued by Aldo Leopold, who advocated protecting it. According to his daughter, Nina Leopold, Leopold loved cowboy music, ranchers, hunting, fishing and the people of the Southwest - though he spent the majority of his career in Wisconsin. While Leopold certainly was a conservationist, he was not anti-hunting, anti-agriculture, or anti-rancher. His idea was to involve private property owners in good conservation practice - not confiscate land. He hated over-grazing, as do the vast majority of ranchers - it's their resource. As Kit Laney told me, "I have absolutely no problem with the idea of the Gila Wilderness, and meetings with the Leopold Society went well." Laney impressed me as a good man, who was being bullied for no good reason....As I sang, I looked into the faces of those present. What was going on in my mind at that moment? Why would a large group of people, not all of them in cowboy hats and boots, turn out in big numbers, to hear old cowboy songs and new ones, and pay for the experience- all in the name of a rancher who defied a court order to reduce his cattle numbers, and then refused to leave his ranch home? Were they all just a bunch of sagebrush rebel ranchers, on a tear about the government? Well, as it turned out, most of the audience present that evening were not ranchers and cowboys. But they were something bigger than that. They were members of a distinct culture- a culture that goes beyond the boundaries of the United States of America; a culture of the community of people who are involved in the life and business of grazing- or are touched by it, or find inspiration from it....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
The One Percent Solution
Many of the scientific papers that have contributed to global warming alarmism over recent weeks (such as the study that predicted the ruin of California’s wine industry or the more recent study predicting stronger hurricanes by 2080) have depended on models that assume atmospheric increases of carbon dioxide concentrations by one percent per year from 1990 to the end of the century. This assumption is not backed up by the evidence, which has seen concentration increase by only 0.4 percent per year since 1990. University of Virginia climatologist Patrick Michaels drew attention to this problem in a Cato Institute op-ed published on October 6 (“Debunking the Latest Hurricane Hype,” available at www.cato.org). He commented, “Because carbon dioxide increases have been bouncing around four-tenths of a percent per year for three decades, why do climate modelers insist on using the wrong number? It seems peculiar that people who have the equivalent of doctorates in applied physics (which is what climate science is) would somehow be perfectly happy to do something they know is wrong....
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The One Percent Solution
Many of the scientific papers that have contributed to global warming alarmism over recent weeks (such as the study that predicted the ruin of California’s wine industry or the more recent study predicting stronger hurricanes by 2080) have depended on models that assume atmospheric increases of carbon dioxide concentrations by one percent per year from 1990 to the end of the century. This assumption is not backed up by the evidence, which has seen concentration increase by only 0.4 percent per year since 1990. University of Virginia climatologist Patrick Michaels drew attention to this problem in a Cato Institute op-ed published on October 6 (“Debunking the Latest Hurricane Hype,” available at www.cato.org). He commented, “Because carbon dioxide increases have been bouncing around four-tenths of a percent per year for three decades, why do climate modelers insist on using the wrong number? It seems peculiar that people who have the equivalent of doctorates in applied physics (which is what climate science is) would somehow be perfectly happy to do something they know is wrong....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Invasion Of The (Animal Rights) Body Snatchers
No one who follows today's animal-rights movement can deny that its violent tactics are escalating. Ten years ago, picketing a restaurant or tossing red paint on a fur coat was front page news. But times are changing. Following the advice of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign director Bruce Friedrich, leading-edge animal cultists have been busy "blowing stuff up and smashing windows." They've cheerfully endorsed murder, issued a detailed "hit list," delivered life-threatening pipe bombs, set multi-million-dollar arsons, and harassed Americans in their homes and places of worship. And just when we thought they couldn't push the envelope any further, along come a few British grave robbers to prove the inhumanity of animal-rights activists. Police and politicians are condemning last month's desecration of a human grave in England. Unnamed animal-rightists dug up and stole the remains of a woman whose family has long been targeted because they breed guinea pigs for medical research....
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Invasion Of The (Animal Rights) Body Snatchers
No one who follows today's animal-rights movement can deny that its violent tactics are escalating. Ten years ago, picketing a restaurant or tossing red paint on a fur coat was front page news. But times are changing. Following the advice of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals campaign director Bruce Friedrich, leading-edge animal cultists have been busy "blowing stuff up and smashing windows." They've cheerfully endorsed murder, issued a detailed "hit list," delivered life-threatening pipe bombs, set multi-million-dollar arsons, and harassed Americans in their homes and places of worship. And just when we thought they couldn't push the envelope any further, along come a few British grave robbers to prove the inhumanity of animal-rights activists. Police and politicians are condemning last month's desecration of a human grave in England. Unnamed animal-rightists dug up and stole the remains of a woman whose family has long been targeted because they breed guinea pigs for medical research....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
COUNTRIES STRUGGLING WITH KYOTO STANDARDS
Countries that have adopted the Kyoto Protocol are proving it unworkable, according to the Heartland Institute. Japan is experiencing challenges in meeting Kyoto standards, while Canada and Russia are having doubts as well.
---Japan’s carbon dioxide emissions are predicted to increase by 5 percent above 1990 levels by the year 2010, which will exceed the required reduction of 6 percent under Kyoto.
---Japan’s energy demand will peak in 2021, then decline -- but the future decline will be due to new technological advancements and a decline in the nation’s population, not Kyoto.
---The Japanese government reported that 2002 greenhouse gas levels were already higher than 1990 levels by 7.3 percent, and a reduction to pre-1990 levels by 2010 would require drastic measures.
Meanwhile, Canadian conservatives are vowing to scrap Kyoto if they win the next national election, saying they would instead implement a more realistic pollution reduction plan which focuses on specific air pollutants, not carbon dioxide. In May, a report from the Russian Academy of Sciences concluded that the treaty was harmful to Russia’s economy and that the Kyoto Protocol lacked substantive scientific evidence.
Source: Iain Murray and Myron Ebell, “Kyoto Proving Unworkable,” Environment and Climate News, August 2004, Heartland Institute.
For text: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15433
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COUNTRIES STRUGGLING WITH KYOTO STANDARDS
Countries that have adopted the Kyoto Protocol are proving it unworkable, according to the Heartland Institute. Japan is experiencing challenges in meeting Kyoto standards, while Canada and Russia are having doubts as well.
---Japan’s carbon dioxide emissions are predicted to increase by 5 percent above 1990 levels by the year 2010, which will exceed the required reduction of 6 percent under Kyoto.
---Japan’s energy demand will peak in 2021, then decline -- but the future decline will be due to new technological advancements and a decline in the nation’s population, not Kyoto.
---The Japanese government reported that 2002 greenhouse gas levels were already higher than 1990 levels by 7.3 percent, and a reduction to pre-1990 levels by 2010 would require drastic measures.
Meanwhile, Canadian conservatives are vowing to scrap Kyoto if they win the next national election, saying they would instead implement a more realistic pollution reduction plan which focuses on specific air pollutants, not carbon dioxide. In May, a report from the Russian Academy of Sciences concluded that the treaty was harmful to Russia’s economy and that the Kyoto Protocol lacked substantive scientific evidence.
Source: Iain Murray and Myron Ebell, “Kyoto Proving Unworkable,” Environment and Climate News, August 2004, Heartland Institute.
For text: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15433
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Wolves in Yellowstone
“Damn liberal new-ager Bruce Babbitt,” the old man grumbled. “I heard he howled like a wolf at the ceremony.” Cody, the longtime Wyoming resident, referring to Bill Clinton’s Secretary of the Interior became incensed over the 1995 reintroduction of the Gray Wolf to Yellowstone National Park. The year was 1997, and I was living in Yellowstone. It would be an understatement to say that the reintroduction was controversial. While park employees like myself and traditional conservationists nationwide sang its praises, ranchers and locals, like Cody were downright pissed off. And in December of that year, Federal District Judge William Downes ruled that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone was unlawful, and thus ordered them removed....
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Wolves in Yellowstone
“Damn liberal new-ager Bruce Babbitt,” the old man grumbled. “I heard he howled like a wolf at the ceremony.” Cody, the longtime Wyoming resident, referring to Bill Clinton’s Secretary of the Interior became incensed over the 1995 reintroduction of the Gray Wolf to Yellowstone National Park. The year was 1997, and I was living in Yellowstone. It would be an understatement to say that the reintroduction was controversial. While park employees like myself and traditional conservationists nationwide sang its praises, ranchers and locals, like Cody were downright pissed off. And in December of that year, Federal District Judge William Downes ruled that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone was unlawful, and thus ordered them removed....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Biotech Bans Falter
While voters in Marin County went the way of the Luddite and approved a ballot initiative on Tuesday banning genetically engineered (GE) crops, three other California counties resoundingly rejected similar proposals. The good people of Butte, San Luis Obispo, and Humboldt counties dealt a blow to groups like the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and the deceptively-named Center for Food Safety, which seek to ban all GE foods in California and beyond. Sad to say, while the activists may have lost this time, we haven't seen the last of these Chicken Little scaremongers and their anti-technology campaigns. California's movement to outlaw biotech crops by ballot initiative began in March, when a group called Californians for GE-Free Agriculture launched a campaign to pass an anti-biotech measure in Mendocino County. The strategy was simple: Take the path of least resistance. Without a single biotech crop under cultivation, Mendocino was an easy starting point....
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Biotech Bans Falter
While voters in Marin County went the way of the Luddite and approved a ballot initiative on Tuesday banning genetically engineered (GE) crops, three other California counties resoundingly rejected similar proposals. The good people of Butte, San Luis Obispo, and Humboldt counties dealt a blow to groups like the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and the deceptively-named Center for Food Safety, which seek to ban all GE foods in California and beyond. Sad to say, while the activists may have lost this time, we haven't seen the last of these Chicken Little scaremongers and their anti-technology campaigns. California's movement to outlaw biotech crops by ballot initiative began in March, when a group called Californians for GE-Free Agriculture launched a campaign to pass an anti-biotech measure in Mendocino County. The strategy was simple: Take the path of least resistance. Without a single biotech crop under cultivation, Mendocino was an easy starting point....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
Air Pollution Cut in Half, EPA Announces
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has achieved a major milestone in its 34-year battle against air pollution. As Administrator Michael Leavitt announced on September 22, "emissions have been cut by more than half (51 percent) since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970." Unfortunately, recent polls show the public is unaware that things have improved at all. According to EPA's Clean Air Status Report: Three Decades of Progress, overall emissions of the six principal pollutants regulated under the law are now at less than half their 1970 levels. This includes declines of 53 percent for carbon monoxide, 24 percent for nitrogen oxides, 81 percent for particulate matter (22 percent for ultra-small particles), 49 percent for sulfur dioxide, 54 percent for volatile organic compounds, and 99 percent for lead....
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Air Pollution Cut in Half, EPA Announces
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has achieved a major milestone in its 34-year battle against air pollution. As Administrator Michael Leavitt announced on September 22, "emissions have been cut by more than half (51 percent) since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970." Unfortunately, recent polls show the public is unaware that things have improved at all. According to EPA's Clean Air Status Report: Three Decades of Progress, overall emissions of the six principal pollutants regulated under the law are now at less than half their 1970 levels. This includes declines of 53 percent for carbon monoxide, 24 percent for nitrogen oxides, 81 percent for particulate matter (22 percent for ultra-small particles), 49 percent for sulfur dioxide, 54 percent for volatile organic compounds, and 99 percent for lead....
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OPINION/COMMENTARY
EU Trade Bait
It is now European mantra that the US does not support multilateral institutions, like the Kyoto Protocol. In possibly his last act as European Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy has shown that the EU is now prepared to "entice" countries to follow its environmental policies. He called it "Soft Power". It is trade bait for poor countries and that is bad news for them. People are right to wonder who and what is next. At a press conference in Brussels on 20 October, Lamy announced that the EU would give preferential access to its markets if poor countries passed an EU test. They had to accede to a set of international conventions on environment, labor and human rights nominated by the EU. He highlighted the Kyoto Protocol. For nearly 10 years the EU tried, without success, to get the WTO to approve compliance with environmental standards as a pre-condition for access to markets. Research by the US National Foreign Trade Council shows it has gone ahead anyway and unilaterally imposed its own restrictions....
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EU Trade Bait
It is now European mantra that the US does not support multilateral institutions, like the Kyoto Protocol. In possibly his last act as European Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy has shown that the EU is now prepared to "entice" countries to follow its environmental policies. He called it "Soft Power". It is trade bait for poor countries and that is bad news for them. People are right to wonder who and what is next. At a press conference in Brussels on 20 October, Lamy announced that the EU would give preferential access to its markets if poor countries passed an EU test. They had to accede to a set of international conventions on environment, labor and human rights nominated by the EU. He highlighted the Kyoto Protocol. For nearly 10 years the EU tried, without success, to get the WTO to approve compliance with environmental standards as a pre-condition for access to markets. Research by the US National Foreign Trade Council shows it has gone ahead anyway and unilaterally imposed its own restrictions....
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