Saturday, February 12, 2005
NOTE TO READERS
My wireless ISP went down at 1:20am. This dialup connection is just too slow, so I will see you tomorrow night.
Permalink 3 comments
My wireless ISP went down at 1:20am. This dialup connection is just too slow, so I will see you tomorrow night.
Permalink 3 comments
Friday, February 11, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Resort developer sues Forest Service for access to dam The man behind a proposed destination ski resort in the shadow of Lolo Peak is also involved in a lawsuit against the Forest Service. Tom Maclay is the president of Carlton Creek Irrigation Company, which is suing the Forest Service for access to its wilderness dam on Little Carlton Lake. The dam was built in 1889, according to the complaint filed by CCIC's attorneys last August. They contend that there is a pre-existing easement to the dam for maintenance and repair, but the Forest Service has not allowed them access for the past several years. Now the agency claims the irrigation company has abandoned the easement....
Editorial: Preserving a masterpiece A Sierra Club official has called California's Giant Sequoia National Monument a "spectacular national treasure." Naturalist John Muir referred to the tree itself as "nature's forest masterpiece." Muir considered the giant sequoia the "greatest of living things." Apparently, folks at the U.S. Forest Service and within the Bush administration do not share those views. The Forest Service, in a recently adopted management plan, would allow loggers to take up to 7.5 million board feet of lumber a year from the Sequoia National Monument. That's enough wood to fill 1,500 lumber trucks. The trees targeted for destruction could be up to 30 inches in diameter, a size that requires two centuries to achieve. What is it with the Bush administration and the destruction of the environment? Is the timber industry truly more important to President Bush than the natural beauty that would be destroyed under such a plan?....
Column: A Rotten Legacy in the Making In the context of legacy and history, one has to wonder what is going through President George W. Bush's mind today. His first administration implemented the most regressive environmental policies in American history. Whether it's the decision to pull out of the Kyoto accords on global climate change, the thwarting of the Clinton administration's roadless forest policy, the giving to antiquated power plants a pass on having to reduce their dangerous emissions of mercury -- a reversal of one of his father's policies -- or efforts to gut the Endangered Species Act, nearly every aspect of the environment has felt the heavy hand of the Bush administration. His policies have been so negative and so broadly damaging that one has to question if he can do anything now to avoid being characterized as the worst environmental president in American history....
Lines drawn in the desert California is on the verge of designating more than 55,000 acres in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park as wilderness, a proposal that once again pits conservationists against off-roaders for control of public land. The park's future rests with the California State Park and Recreation Commission. The group will meet today in Mission Valley to vote on the first official management plan in the 72-year history of the park, which spans 600,000 acres at the eastern edge of San Diego County....
Greens halting Marines' training Imagine a full-scale, live-fire Marine amphibious assault on Red Beach, on the 125,000-acre Camp Pendleton, complete with landing craft, young, hard-charging Marines and sailors practicing a mode of attack used recently in Iraq. This tactic is the Marine Corps' bread and butter. No military force in this world does it better. But at Camp Pendleton, once the hard-charging Marines have advanced up the beach, the live-fire drill suddenly ends. Due to environmental concerns, this full-scale invasion practice often comes to a screeching halt. Then the troops are picked up in trucks, marched across a paved road, or turned around, put back on the ships and transported to another area on base where the amphibious assault is continued ---- all in order to protect some endangered species and critical habitat. In 1994, the center was joined by the Endangered Habitats League and Natural Resources Defense Council in petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the small, brownish rodent, the Pacific pocket mouse. Two additional populations of that rodent were discovered on base, so the litigants sought to have the "Marine Corps ... required to ensure that its operations will not adversely modify any habitat essential to the mouse's survival."....
Lawmakers announce new push to change Endangered Species Act Four leading GOP House members and senators announced a joint effort Thursday to rewrite the Endangered Species Act to toughen up habitat and scientific provisions. Environmentalists immediately criticized the plan as the latest attempt to gut the law. The lawmakers said it was the first time members of the House and Senate had banded together at the beginning of a congressional session to amend the 1973 act. Previous attempts to change the law have failed, but they said this time they hoped to produce a single Endangered Species Act reauthorization bill that could be introduced in both chambers. The lawmakers said they had no specific legislative language yet, but listed goals including increased involvement by states, more incentives for private landowners, and strengthening scientific reviews before species are listed or critical habitat is designated....
Northern Aplomado falcons to be released in southern N.M. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes reintroducing northern Aplomado falcons in southern New Mexico, where there have been only sporadic sightings of the endangered bird. The agency plans to release as many as 150 captive-bred birds annually beginning in the summer of 2006. The falcons would be released for 10 or more years until a self-sustaining population is established, the agency said Wednesday. The birds, native to Chihuahuan desert grasslands in southern New Mexico and Arizona, have not been documented in Arizona since the 1940s. The agency proposes reintroducing the falcons as a nonessential experimental population, which gives them less protection under the federal Endangered Species Act....
Protection of wolves could bring backlash Conservation groups were overjoyed last week when a federal judge ruled in their favor that the gray wolf should be put back on the endangered species list in most states, but one of the world's foremost authorities on wolf biology frets that their victory might come back to bite them. The question is no longer whether the wolf can recover. The question now is whether humans can learn to live with it, and renowned wolf biologist David Mech says the no-kill rule for problem wolves in a place such as Dairyland could actually spell trouble for the wolf everywhere. If cow-attacking wolves can't be destroyed, he says, the bad actors could cost the entire species its tenuous public relations revival. "I like to compare it with something like the bison," said Mech, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Service. "We could have bison all over the place too, but they'd be running into cars and through wheat fields. With all these species, you have to have some control on their numbers."....
Elk and bison wariness of predators seen as check on plant damage Be afraid. It's the message a cat sends when stalking a mouse, an eagle sends when swooping toward a squirrel and a wolf sends when chasing down an elk. And the way wild animals react to the basic fear of being caught and eaten sculpts the landscape of the West. It controls how wildlife such as elk and deer move and feed, and may go so far as to help trees grow, give songbirds places to alight and even keep streams cold and clear....
Column: Two big victories for hunters Lead ammunition won't be banned for big-game hunters in California, as least not in the short term, and four proposed projects to convert capped wells in the Mojave National Preserve to wildlife water sources have been approved by the National Park Service. Both of these decisions are major victories for hunters and wildlife enthusiasts who are interested in sound resource management and efforts to protect and improve wildlife habitat....
Column: Australia’s wool industry gets sheepish in the face of animal-rights demagoguery Demagoguery comes easy to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The most recent example comes out of Australia, where PETA is mounting an international boycott against that nation's wool industry over the admittedly unpleasant — but necessary — Australian sheep-ranching practice known as "mulesing" (described below). Yet the defensive response of the Australian wool industry after being attacked unfairly, demonstrates why PETA so often gets the upper hand. Australia is home to a nasty species of fly (the blowfly) that reproduces by laying eggs in wet wool, particularly around wounds or in healthy but damp areas soiled by feces and urine. When the eggs hatch, the maggots literally eat into the flesh of the sheep and feed for several days — a condition known as "flystrike" — before falling off onto the ground to pupate and become mature insects, starting the cycle anew. This parasitic maggot infestation — which partially eats the infected animal alive — is not only agonizing, but releases toxins causing afflicted sheep to die lingering and terrible deaths. Mulesing protects tens of millions of Australian sheep for their entire lives from suffering flystrike....
Bill would protect identities of ranchers with diseased cattle When brucellosis was detected in a Campbell County cattle herd last year, word spread quickly, and the livestock owners' names were widely reported. Later, doubts were cast on the veracity of the test results, but the family's name was already part of public discourse. Under a bill approved by the Wyoming Senate on Thursday, names of livestock owners with diseased cattle -- suspected or confirmed -- would be closely guarded and only the state veterinarian and state health officer could release their identities to the public....
U.S. Senate Measure Aims to Stop Canada Cattle Trade Ten U.S. senators introduced a bipartisan resolution on Thursday that aims to stop a Bush administration plan to resume on March 7 cattle trade with Canada that was cut off in mid-2003 over mad cow concerns. If passed by both the Senate and the House and signed by the president, the "resolution of disagreement" would overturn a U.S. Agriculture Department regulation to open the border to imports of Canadian cattle less than 30 months old. The resolution was authored by Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, who questioned whether Canada has adequate safeguards against mad cow disease because two new cases were recently found in Alberta. Sponsors included Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and New Mexico Republican Pete Domenici....
Want To Know How Old That Cow Is? The secretary of agriculture announced yesterday that part of a ban on importing cattle from Canada will be lifted next month: Starting March 7, live cows less than 30 months old will be permitted into the United States while older cattle, alive or dead, will remain off-limits (in an effort to prevent the spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). How can inspectors tell how old a cow is? By the cow's teeth while it's alive, and by its carcass when it's dead. To determine the age of a cow by "dentition," a rancher looks into its mouth and checks the incisors at the very front. A calf, like a human child, has baby teeth (or "milk teeth") that loosen and fall out. These are whiter and narrower than the adult versions, which only begin to emerge after 15 months. Between 24 and 30 months, a second pair of incisors erupts from the gums. Once these teeth are fully in, the cow is deemed to be at least 30 months old....
Permalink 0 comments
Resort developer sues Forest Service for access to dam The man behind a proposed destination ski resort in the shadow of Lolo Peak is also involved in a lawsuit against the Forest Service. Tom Maclay is the president of Carlton Creek Irrigation Company, which is suing the Forest Service for access to its wilderness dam on Little Carlton Lake. The dam was built in 1889, according to the complaint filed by CCIC's attorneys last August. They contend that there is a pre-existing easement to the dam for maintenance and repair, but the Forest Service has not allowed them access for the past several years. Now the agency claims the irrigation company has abandoned the easement....
Editorial: Preserving a masterpiece A Sierra Club official has called California's Giant Sequoia National Monument a "spectacular national treasure." Naturalist John Muir referred to the tree itself as "nature's forest masterpiece." Muir considered the giant sequoia the "greatest of living things." Apparently, folks at the U.S. Forest Service and within the Bush administration do not share those views. The Forest Service, in a recently adopted management plan, would allow loggers to take up to 7.5 million board feet of lumber a year from the Sequoia National Monument. That's enough wood to fill 1,500 lumber trucks. The trees targeted for destruction could be up to 30 inches in diameter, a size that requires two centuries to achieve. What is it with the Bush administration and the destruction of the environment? Is the timber industry truly more important to President Bush than the natural beauty that would be destroyed under such a plan?....
Column: A Rotten Legacy in the Making In the context of legacy and history, one has to wonder what is going through President George W. Bush's mind today. His first administration implemented the most regressive environmental policies in American history. Whether it's the decision to pull out of the Kyoto accords on global climate change, the thwarting of the Clinton administration's roadless forest policy, the giving to antiquated power plants a pass on having to reduce their dangerous emissions of mercury -- a reversal of one of his father's policies -- or efforts to gut the Endangered Species Act, nearly every aspect of the environment has felt the heavy hand of the Bush administration. His policies have been so negative and so broadly damaging that one has to question if he can do anything now to avoid being characterized as the worst environmental president in American history....
Lines drawn in the desert California is on the verge of designating more than 55,000 acres in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park as wilderness, a proposal that once again pits conservationists against off-roaders for control of public land. The park's future rests with the California State Park and Recreation Commission. The group will meet today in Mission Valley to vote on the first official management plan in the 72-year history of the park, which spans 600,000 acres at the eastern edge of San Diego County....
Greens halting Marines' training Imagine a full-scale, live-fire Marine amphibious assault on Red Beach, on the 125,000-acre Camp Pendleton, complete with landing craft, young, hard-charging Marines and sailors practicing a mode of attack used recently in Iraq. This tactic is the Marine Corps' bread and butter. No military force in this world does it better. But at Camp Pendleton, once the hard-charging Marines have advanced up the beach, the live-fire drill suddenly ends. Due to environmental concerns, this full-scale invasion practice often comes to a screeching halt. Then the troops are picked up in trucks, marched across a paved road, or turned around, put back on the ships and transported to another area on base where the amphibious assault is continued ---- all in order to protect some endangered species and critical habitat. In 1994, the center was joined by the Endangered Habitats League and Natural Resources Defense Council in petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the small, brownish rodent, the Pacific pocket mouse. Two additional populations of that rodent were discovered on base, so the litigants sought to have the "Marine Corps ... required to ensure that its operations will not adversely modify any habitat essential to the mouse's survival."....
Lawmakers announce new push to change Endangered Species Act Four leading GOP House members and senators announced a joint effort Thursday to rewrite the Endangered Species Act to toughen up habitat and scientific provisions. Environmentalists immediately criticized the plan as the latest attempt to gut the law. The lawmakers said it was the first time members of the House and Senate had banded together at the beginning of a congressional session to amend the 1973 act. Previous attempts to change the law have failed, but they said this time they hoped to produce a single Endangered Species Act reauthorization bill that could be introduced in both chambers. The lawmakers said they had no specific legislative language yet, but listed goals including increased involvement by states, more incentives for private landowners, and strengthening scientific reviews before species are listed or critical habitat is designated....
Northern Aplomado falcons to be released in southern N.M. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes reintroducing northern Aplomado falcons in southern New Mexico, where there have been only sporadic sightings of the endangered bird. The agency plans to release as many as 150 captive-bred birds annually beginning in the summer of 2006. The falcons would be released for 10 or more years until a self-sustaining population is established, the agency said Wednesday. The birds, native to Chihuahuan desert grasslands in southern New Mexico and Arizona, have not been documented in Arizona since the 1940s. The agency proposes reintroducing the falcons as a nonessential experimental population, which gives them less protection under the federal Endangered Species Act....
Protection of wolves could bring backlash Conservation groups were overjoyed last week when a federal judge ruled in their favor that the gray wolf should be put back on the endangered species list in most states, but one of the world's foremost authorities on wolf biology frets that their victory might come back to bite them. The question is no longer whether the wolf can recover. The question now is whether humans can learn to live with it, and renowned wolf biologist David Mech says the no-kill rule for problem wolves in a place such as Dairyland could actually spell trouble for the wolf everywhere. If cow-attacking wolves can't be destroyed, he says, the bad actors could cost the entire species its tenuous public relations revival. "I like to compare it with something like the bison," said Mech, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Service. "We could have bison all over the place too, but they'd be running into cars and through wheat fields. With all these species, you have to have some control on their numbers."....
Elk and bison wariness of predators seen as check on plant damage Be afraid. It's the message a cat sends when stalking a mouse, an eagle sends when swooping toward a squirrel and a wolf sends when chasing down an elk. And the way wild animals react to the basic fear of being caught and eaten sculpts the landscape of the West. It controls how wildlife such as elk and deer move and feed, and may go so far as to help trees grow, give songbirds places to alight and even keep streams cold and clear....
Column: Two big victories for hunters Lead ammunition won't be banned for big-game hunters in California, as least not in the short term, and four proposed projects to convert capped wells in the Mojave National Preserve to wildlife water sources have been approved by the National Park Service. Both of these decisions are major victories for hunters and wildlife enthusiasts who are interested in sound resource management and efforts to protect and improve wildlife habitat....
Column: Australia’s wool industry gets sheepish in the face of animal-rights demagoguery Demagoguery comes easy to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The most recent example comes out of Australia, where PETA is mounting an international boycott against that nation's wool industry over the admittedly unpleasant — but necessary — Australian sheep-ranching practice known as "mulesing" (described below). Yet the defensive response of the Australian wool industry after being attacked unfairly, demonstrates why PETA so often gets the upper hand. Australia is home to a nasty species of fly (the blowfly) that reproduces by laying eggs in wet wool, particularly around wounds or in healthy but damp areas soiled by feces and urine. When the eggs hatch, the maggots literally eat into the flesh of the sheep and feed for several days — a condition known as "flystrike" — before falling off onto the ground to pupate and become mature insects, starting the cycle anew. This parasitic maggot infestation — which partially eats the infected animal alive — is not only agonizing, but releases toxins causing afflicted sheep to die lingering and terrible deaths. Mulesing protects tens of millions of Australian sheep for their entire lives from suffering flystrike....
Bill would protect identities of ranchers with diseased cattle When brucellosis was detected in a Campbell County cattle herd last year, word spread quickly, and the livestock owners' names were widely reported. Later, doubts were cast on the veracity of the test results, but the family's name was already part of public discourse. Under a bill approved by the Wyoming Senate on Thursday, names of livestock owners with diseased cattle -- suspected or confirmed -- would be closely guarded and only the state veterinarian and state health officer could release their identities to the public....
U.S. Senate Measure Aims to Stop Canada Cattle Trade Ten U.S. senators introduced a bipartisan resolution on Thursday that aims to stop a Bush administration plan to resume on March 7 cattle trade with Canada that was cut off in mid-2003 over mad cow concerns. If passed by both the Senate and the House and signed by the president, the "resolution of disagreement" would overturn a U.S. Agriculture Department regulation to open the border to imports of Canadian cattle less than 30 months old. The resolution was authored by Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, who questioned whether Canada has adequate safeguards against mad cow disease because two new cases were recently found in Alberta. Sponsors included Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and New Mexico Republican Pete Domenici....
Want To Know How Old That Cow Is? The secretary of agriculture announced yesterday that part of a ban on importing cattle from Canada will be lifted next month: Starting March 7, live cows less than 30 months old will be permitted into the United States while older cattle, alive or dead, will remain off-limits (in an effort to prevent the spread of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). How can inspectors tell how old a cow is? By the cow's teeth while it's alive, and by its carcass when it's dead. To determine the age of a cow by "dentition," a rancher looks into its mouth and checks the incisors at the very front. A calf, like a human child, has baby teeth (or "milk teeth") that loosen and fall out. These are whiter and narrower than the adult versions, which only begin to emerge after 15 months. Between 24 and 30 months, a second pair of incisors erupts from the gums. Once these teeth are fully in, the cow is deemed to be at least 30 months old....
Permalink 0 comments
Thursday, February 10, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Showdown In Wyoming Over Gas Wyoming has called itself the cowboy state for years. The Old West may be changing, but you can still find plenty of cowboys in Gillette. Nowadays though, broncos aren't the only rough ride in that town. The cowboys say their biggest fight these days is with energy producers. And they don’t like the way things are going. "I feel helpless. I just don’t have a good feeling, you know," says cowboy George Smith. "I don’t trust these people. Their past dictates that." Energy has been big business in Gillette for years. From open mines, more than a million tons of coal are dug up and shipped out of town every day. But the new craze that has Smith so upset is methane gas. It’s trapped in underground coal seams all over the area. In just eight years, 17,000 methane wells have been sunk in the Powder River Basin. And 33,000 more wells are planned....
House defeats plan to limit game wardens' entry onto land A plan to limit game wardens' ability to enter private land was rejected by the South Dakota House on Wednesday after opponents said the measure could weaken enforcement of hunting laws. A bill that would have repealed the open-fields doctrine failed on a vote of 27-43. The doctrine is based on court decisions and laws that give game wardens authority to enter private lands, away from houses, to check hunters without getting permission from landowners. Supporters argued that the measure was needed to protect landowners' property rights. Conservation officers could have still entered land to check hunters if they had the owner's permission or had reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, they said....
Lecturer details successes of 40-year-old Wilderness Act A unique mixture of pragmatism and idealism has made the Wilderness Act a resounding success since its adoption 40 years ago - an approach that will prove beneficial in attempts to preserve wildlands in the future, a leader in the wilderness preservation movement said Tuesday night. "That mix is the very philosophy that undergirds the Wilderness Act itself," said Doug Scott, policy director of Campaign for America's Wilderness. "The Wilderness Act was written by pragmatists who wanted to get things accomplished." Scott was the first of 11 local and national speakers who will reflect on the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act during this year's Wilderness Lecture Series at the University of Montana....
Survey: Science, politics at odds Politics trumps science when it comes to the government's role in protecting endangered species and the environment, federal scientists said in a new survey. Of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientists who replied to the survey, 71% said the agency cannot be trusted to save endangered species. The 42-question survey released Wednesday was taken by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Both groups have been harshly critical of the Bush administration's stance on science. "The survey reveals an alarming disregard for scientific facts among political appointees at the Fish & Wildlife Service," says Lexi Shultz of the scientists group. The scientists surveyed are responsible for studying endangered species, fisheries and wildlife conservation. In written responses, scientists complained that agency chiefs are overly friendly with ranchers who are hostile to science and whose cattle graze on public lands....
Environmental groups assail cuts in Bush's proposed budget An alliance of several of the nation's leading environmental and conservation organizations charged Wednesday that, when viewed as a whole, President Bush's 2006 budget makes cuts far deeper than those he proposed specifically for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency. In short, the groups said the budget stands as "the most anti-environment budget blueprint ever proposed by his administration." EPA's proposed spending was trimmed by about 6 percent and that for Interior slightly less than 1 percent, according to administration figures. But the advocates said the decrease would total more than 10 percent when cuts in environment-oriented programs scattered throughout other governmental agencies, including those for energy conservation, Amtrak subsidies, coastal protection and wildlife habitat restoration, are taken into account....
President Bush Reinforces Commitment to Cooperative Conservation in 2006 Budget President Bush continued to build on the legacy of cooperative conservation established in his first term by supporting programs in the 2006 budget thatpromote partnerships with the American people to conserve our nation's land and water, wildlife and other natural resources. The Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce departments and the Environmental Protection Agency all fund key partnership programs that will empower states, tribes, local communities, conservation groups, private landowners and others to undertake conservation projects. These projects range from wetlands restorationefforts occurring along Ball Bay on Upper Klamath Lake; to the removal of invasive plants in Palm Beach, Fla.; to the development and implementation of self-regulating strategies to mitigate the trend of declining marine populations in Kenai Fjords, Alaska. The funding supports the president's executive order signed last year on "Facilitation of Cooperative Conservation."....
Clash over policies on energy, pollution The tension between the desire to find more energy sources and the need to deal with the pollution they produce is creating a political dust-up that may define George Bush's environmental policy during his second presidential term. Buoyed by his reelection and a larger Republican majority in Congress, Mr. Bush is pushing for more oil, gas, and coal development on public lands - including the controversial coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. This is the foundation of his energy policy. At the same time, the administration wants to change landmark air-quality laws by easing some of the regulatory burden on coal-burning power plants and other energy producers while relying on the marketplace to provide incentives for reducing pollution. But despite the power of the GOP in Washington these days, administration plans here are no slam-dunk. Prominent Republicans are among those skeptical of oil drilling in ANWR, and some have joined the ranks of lawmakers already concerned about the climate change caused by human energy consumption. Some traditionally conservative red-staters along the Rocky Mountain front - ranchers, for example - are speaking out against more oil and gas drilling there....
U.S. gaining forest land despite development Despite a booming population and urban sprawl, the United States has gained 10 million acres of forests since 1990. That’s enough trees to cover all the land in New Jersey — twice. “We’re continually growing more than we’re cutting,” said Brad Smith, an authority on the nation’s estimated 3 billion trees at Forest Service headquarters in Arlington, Va. “People think urban sprawl is eating all the forest — we can’t say that.” Over the past 50 years, according to the Forest Service, 24 states added woodland — seven of them more than a million acres each. New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania were the biggest gainers. Texas, Florida and California lost the most....
Tankers could return to fight wildfires in June The small planes and heavy helicopters that stepped in to fight wildfire across the West last year after the U.S. Forest Service stopped using big air tankers for safety reasons will be back again this year, the Bush administration's top forest official said Wednesday. And 20 heavy air tankers or more will be back on the job if an analysis to be completed by June 1 shows they are safe to fly, Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey said in a telephone interview from Portland. "We actually achieved a higher rate of success on initial attack with the reconfigured fleet we used last year than we had in previous years," Rey said. "That having been said, we still believe the large tankers are useful tools. They are more cost-efficient than helicopters to fly."....
Appeals force more grazing analysis The Prescott National Forest has to rework its analysis of four Verde Rim grazing permits after Forest Supervisor Mike King agreed with four administrative appeals of the project. The Prescott National Forest Friends, Forest Guardians based in Santa Fe, and two individuals appealed the Verde District’s decision and analysis of the four grazing permits southwest of Camp Verde. The four appeals raised similar concerns, agreed Prescott National Forest Friends Chair Jim Powers of Prescott and Prescott National Forest Ecosystems Treatment Staff Officer Mark Johnson. Powers said his main complaint was that forest officials didn’t follow the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the forest’s own land management plan....
Genetic Barcodes Will Identify World's Species A team of international scientists launched an ambitious project on Thursday to genetically identify, or provide a barcode for, every plant and animal species on the planet. By taking a snippet of DNA from all the known species on Earth and linking them to photographs, descriptions and scientific information, the researchers plan to build the largest database of its kind. "We have discovered that it is quite possible to have a short DNA sequence that can characterise just about every form of life on the planet," Dr Richard Lane, director of science at the Natural History Museum in London, told a news conference. Less than a fifth of the Earth's estimated 10 million species of plants and animals have been named. Researchers working on the Barcode of Life Initiative hope that genetically identifying all of them in a standardised way on a global scale will speed up the discovery of new ones....
Rey won’t endorse timber fund extension The Bush administration’s point man on forest policy declined Tuesday to endorse extension of a law that has pumped billions of dollars into rural counties hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land. The so-called county payments law is working as intended, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey told a Senate committee. It was meant to help offset sharp declines in timber sales since the late 1980s, due in part to changes in federal forest policy that restricted logging to protect endangered species such as the northern spotted owl. But "it’s a very difficult budget environment right now," Rey said, pointedly not asking the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to reauthorize the law for another seven years. It is set to expire next year....
Jittery sheep lead to hang gliding ban Concern over skittish sheep led to a hang gliding ban from Vista Point, a popular lookout along scenic Highway 74 where enthusiasts have been taking off for years. New signs warn pilots they face up to $1,000 in fines and a year in jail for taking off from the longtime launching pad. The Bureau of Land Management said the hang gliders could be scaring endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep roaming in the mountains below. ''The U.S. advent of hang gliding is right here in Southern California. Vista Point is one of the early, early launching points,'' said pilot Tad Hurst, who is working to reverse the BLM's ban....
Lawmaker backs USDA's policy on stream flows Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., says a pledge by federal officials to cooperate with water users on restoring the environment should settle a long-standing dispute and prevent cities, farmers and ranchers from being forced to give up water. Allard says a letter from Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey signals an end to past attempts by the U.S. Forest Service "to extort water rights from Colorado citizens" by requiring that some water be released from reservoirs strictly to maintain fish and habitat in rivers and streams. "This is very important, in my view. It's something I've been working on for years," Allard says. Although Rey's pledge addressed just Colorado, Allard says it could set a precedent across the West. Environmentalists, though, say the Jan. 19 letter from Rey simply reinforces recent decisions by the Forest Service that have stressed cooperation with the state rather than mandates. They says the government still must comply with environmental laws and a federal court decision last year saying the Forest Service must ensure there's enough water for fish and wildlife habitat....
State engineer imposes priority on North Platte For the fourth year in a row, junior water right holders may be out of luck in the North Platte River Basin. Wyoming State Engineer Patrick T. Tyrrell announced Wednesday that senior water rights now have priority upstream of Guernsey Reservoir, due to the continuing drought. "Unfortunately, our guys know the drill real well by now," Tyrrell said. He blamed the combination of below-average snowpack and continuing low carryover storage in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoir system. The North Platte Project storage and runoff forecasts for the coming season fall well under the 1.1 million-acre-foot "trigger" value, which represents full ownership supply. This is the forth year in a row of low water availability in the North Platte system, said a frustrated Tyrrell....
U.S. puts off entry of Canadian cattle The Bush administration on Wednesday slightly backed off on opening the borders to Canadian cattle and beef starting March 7. Because its investigations of mad cow disease in Canada are incomplete, there will be a delay in admitting meat from cattle that were 30 months or older when slaughtered, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. This is consistent with the policy of keeping out live cattle of that age because they are considered more at risk for having the brain-wasting disease. The administration's plans are still on track to open the border for younger animals and meat from those animals, which is expected to significantly increase U.S. supplies and hold down prices....
Good boots, publicity helped Justin flourish The first three pairs of boots that H.J. "Joe" Justin made in his small shop in Spanish Fort were sturdy and long-wearing, which made their buyers happy. Soon cattle herders along the Chisholm Trail and down into Texas knew about Justin's boots. By the end of 1879, his first year in business, Justin had sold $1,000 worth of boots and hired a full-time employee, an elderly leather tanner named Bill Grace. By 1887, the 28-year-old Justin was working night and day to keep up with the demand for boots. And he had won the hand of 24-year-old Annie Allen, the daughter of Spanish Fort's doctor. They were married Jan. 12. Annie pitched in, even designing a self-measuring kit after a Montana rancher ordered boots for his cowhands, who could not come to Spanish Fort for a fitting. The invention created a mail-order business....
Hollywood Honors Singing Cowboy Gene Autry The late Gene Autry, Hollywood's best-known singing cowboy, has been honored in Hollywood, where he made his fortune and defined a movie genre. The intersection at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue was Gene Autry's first Hollywood home. Seventy years ago, it was the site of the old Hollywood Hotel, where he lived for a time after moving to Los Angeles from Chicago. Today, it is a tourist destination and home of the Kodak Theatre, where the Academy Awards, or Oscars, are presented each year. "It is Hollywood's 118th birthday, and we celebrate it by dedicating this corner to forever be known as 'Gene Autry Square'," he announced. Gene Autry is the only entertainer with five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for each branch of the entertainment business: movies, television, radio, stage performance and music....
The bucks stop in Fort Worth for Durango The bull Durango must have wondered what all of the hoopla was about Saturday night at the Southwestern Exposition Livestock Show and Rodeo. There were highlights of his career presented on the video boards throughout the arena. Rodeo announcer Bob Tallman was waxing eloquently about the bull's outstanding career. And the 5,700 fans at Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth were on the edge of their seats. It was a special night for the bull that is owned by Neal and Jim Gay of Mesquite, the Fort Worth rodeo's senior producers. This would be his last appearance as a bucking bull....
Permalink 0 comments
Showdown In Wyoming Over Gas Wyoming has called itself the cowboy state for years. The Old West may be changing, but you can still find plenty of cowboys in Gillette. Nowadays though, broncos aren't the only rough ride in that town. The cowboys say their biggest fight these days is with energy producers. And they don’t like the way things are going. "I feel helpless. I just don’t have a good feeling, you know," says cowboy George Smith. "I don’t trust these people. Their past dictates that." Energy has been big business in Gillette for years. From open mines, more than a million tons of coal are dug up and shipped out of town every day. But the new craze that has Smith so upset is methane gas. It’s trapped in underground coal seams all over the area. In just eight years, 17,000 methane wells have been sunk in the Powder River Basin. And 33,000 more wells are planned....
House defeats plan to limit game wardens' entry onto land A plan to limit game wardens' ability to enter private land was rejected by the South Dakota House on Wednesday after opponents said the measure could weaken enforcement of hunting laws. A bill that would have repealed the open-fields doctrine failed on a vote of 27-43. The doctrine is based on court decisions and laws that give game wardens authority to enter private lands, away from houses, to check hunters without getting permission from landowners. Supporters argued that the measure was needed to protect landowners' property rights. Conservation officers could have still entered land to check hunters if they had the owner's permission or had reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, they said....
Lecturer details successes of 40-year-old Wilderness Act A unique mixture of pragmatism and idealism has made the Wilderness Act a resounding success since its adoption 40 years ago - an approach that will prove beneficial in attempts to preserve wildlands in the future, a leader in the wilderness preservation movement said Tuesday night. "That mix is the very philosophy that undergirds the Wilderness Act itself," said Doug Scott, policy director of Campaign for America's Wilderness. "The Wilderness Act was written by pragmatists who wanted to get things accomplished." Scott was the first of 11 local and national speakers who will reflect on the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act during this year's Wilderness Lecture Series at the University of Montana....
Survey: Science, politics at odds Politics trumps science when it comes to the government's role in protecting endangered species and the environment, federal scientists said in a new survey. Of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientists who replied to the survey, 71% said the agency cannot be trusted to save endangered species. The 42-question survey released Wednesday was taken by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Both groups have been harshly critical of the Bush administration's stance on science. "The survey reveals an alarming disregard for scientific facts among political appointees at the Fish & Wildlife Service," says Lexi Shultz of the scientists group. The scientists surveyed are responsible for studying endangered species, fisheries and wildlife conservation. In written responses, scientists complained that agency chiefs are overly friendly with ranchers who are hostile to science and whose cattle graze on public lands....
Environmental groups assail cuts in Bush's proposed budget An alliance of several of the nation's leading environmental and conservation organizations charged Wednesday that, when viewed as a whole, President Bush's 2006 budget makes cuts far deeper than those he proposed specifically for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency. In short, the groups said the budget stands as "the most anti-environment budget blueprint ever proposed by his administration." EPA's proposed spending was trimmed by about 6 percent and that for Interior slightly less than 1 percent, according to administration figures. But the advocates said the decrease would total more than 10 percent when cuts in environment-oriented programs scattered throughout other governmental agencies, including those for energy conservation, Amtrak subsidies, coastal protection and wildlife habitat restoration, are taken into account....
President Bush Reinforces Commitment to Cooperative Conservation in 2006 Budget President Bush continued to build on the legacy of cooperative conservation established in his first term by supporting programs in the 2006 budget thatpromote partnerships with the American people to conserve our nation's land and water, wildlife and other natural resources. The Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce departments and the Environmental Protection Agency all fund key partnership programs that will empower states, tribes, local communities, conservation groups, private landowners and others to undertake conservation projects. These projects range from wetlands restorationefforts occurring along Ball Bay on Upper Klamath Lake; to the removal of invasive plants in Palm Beach, Fla.; to the development and implementation of self-regulating strategies to mitigate the trend of declining marine populations in Kenai Fjords, Alaska. The funding supports the president's executive order signed last year on "Facilitation of Cooperative Conservation."....
Clash over policies on energy, pollution The tension between the desire to find more energy sources and the need to deal with the pollution they produce is creating a political dust-up that may define George Bush's environmental policy during his second presidential term. Buoyed by his reelection and a larger Republican majority in Congress, Mr. Bush is pushing for more oil, gas, and coal development on public lands - including the controversial coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska. This is the foundation of his energy policy. At the same time, the administration wants to change landmark air-quality laws by easing some of the regulatory burden on coal-burning power plants and other energy producers while relying on the marketplace to provide incentives for reducing pollution. But despite the power of the GOP in Washington these days, administration plans here are no slam-dunk. Prominent Republicans are among those skeptical of oil drilling in ANWR, and some have joined the ranks of lawmakers already concerned about the climate change caused by human energy consumption. Some traditionally conservative red-staters along the Rocky Mountain front - ranchers, for example - are speaking out against more oil and gas drilling there....
U.S. gaining forest land despite development Despite a booming population and urban sprawl, the United States has gained 10 million acres of forests since 1990. That’s enough trees to cover all the land in New Jersey — twice. “We’re continually growing more than we’re cutting,” said Brad Smith, an authority on the nation’s estimated 3 billion trees at Forest Service headquarters in Arlington, Va. “People think urban sprawl is eating all the forest — we can’t say that.” Over the past 50 years, according to the Forest Service, 24 states added woodland — seven of them more than a million acres each. New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania were the biggest gainers. Texas, Florida and California lost the most....
Tankers could return to fight wildfires in June The small planes and heavy helicopters that stepped in to fight wildfire across the West last year after the U.S. Forest Service stopped using big air tankers for safety reasons will be back again this year, the Bush administration's top forest official said Wednesday. And 20 heavy air tankers or more will be back on the job if an analysis to be completed by June 1 shows they are safe to fly, Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey said in a telephone interview from Portland. "We actually achieved a higher rate of success on initial attack with the reconfigured fleet we used last year than we had in previous years," Rey said. "That having been said, we still believe the large tankers are useful tools. They are more cost-efficient than helicopters to fly."....
Appeals force more grazing analysis The Prescott National Forest has to rework its analysis of four Verde Rim grazing permits after Forest Supervisor Mike King agreed with four administrative appeals of the project. The Prescott National Forest Friends, Forest Guardians based in Santa Fe, and two individuals appealed the Verde District’s decision and analysis of the four grazing permits southwest of Camp Verde. The four appeals raised similar concerns, agreed Prescott National Forest Friends Chair Jim Powers of Prescott and Prescott National Forest Ecosystems Treatment Staff Officer Mark Johnson. Powers said his main complaint was that forest officials didn’t follow the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the forest’s own land management plan....
Genetic Barcodes Will Identify World's Species A team of international scientists launched an ambitious project on Thursday to genetically identify, or provide a barcode for, every plant and animal species on the planet. By taking a snippet of DNA from all the known species on Earth and linking them to photographs, descriptions and scientific information, the researchers plan to build the largest database of its kind. "We have discovered that it is quite possible to have a short DNA sequence that can characterise just about every form of life on the planet," Dr Richard Lane, director of science at the Natural History Museum in London, told a news conference. Less than a fifth of the Earth's estimated 10 million species of plants and animals have been named. Researchers working on the Barcode of Life Initiative hope that genetically identifying all of them in a standardised way on a global scale will speed up the discovery of new ones....
Rey won’t endorse timber fund extension The Bush administration’s point man on forest policy declined Tuesday to endorse extension of a law that has pumped billions of dollars into rural counties hurt by logging cutbacks on federal land. The so-called county payments law is working as intended, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey told a Senate committee. It was meant to help offset sharp declines in timber sales since the late 1980s, due in part to changes in federal forest policy that restricted logging to protect endangered species such as the northern spotted owl. But "it’s a very difficult budget environment right now," Rey said, pointedly not asking the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to reauthorize the law for another seven years. It is set to expire next year....
Jittery sheep lead to hang gliding ban Concern over skittish sheep led to a hang gliding ban from Vista Point, a popular lookout along scenic Highway 74 where enthusiasts have been taking off for years. New signs warn pilots they face up to $1,000 in fines and a year in jail for taking off from the longtime launching pad. The Bureau of Land Management said the hang gliders could be scaring endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep roaming in the mountains below. ''The U.S. advent of hang gliding is right here in Southern California. Vista Point is one of the early, early launching points,'' said pilot Tad Hurst, who is working to reverse the BLM's ban....
Lawmaker backs USDA's policy on stream flows Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., says a pledge by federal officials to cooperate with water users on restoring the environment should settle a long-standing dispute and prevent cities, farmers and ranchers from being forced to give up water. Allard says a letter from Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey signals an end to past attempts by the U.S. Forest Service "to extort water rights from Colorado citizens" by requiring that some water be released from reservoirs strictly to maintain fish and habitat in rivers and streams. "This is very important, in my view. It's something I've been working on for years," Allard says. Although Rey's pledge addressed just Colorado, Allard says it could set a precedent across the West. Environmentalists, though, say the Jan. 19 letter from Rey simply reinforces recent decisions by the Forest Service that have stressed cooperation with the state rather than mandates. They says the government still must comply with environmental laws and a federal court decision last year saying the Forest Service must ensure there's enough water for fish and wildlife habitat....
State engineer imposes priority on North Platte For the fourth year in a row, junior water right holders may be out of luck in the North Platte River Basin. Wyoming State Engineer Patrick T. Tyrrell announced Wednesday that senior water rights now have priority upstream of Guernsey Reservoir, due to the continuing drought. "Unfortunately, our guys know the drill real well by now," Tyrrell said. He blamed the combination of below-average snowpack and continuing low carryover storage in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoir system. The North Platte Project storage and runoff forecasts for the coming season fall well under the 1.1 million-acre-foot "trigger" value, which represents full ownership supply. This is the forth year in a row of low water availability in the North Platte system, said a frustrated Tyrrell....
U.S. puts off entry of Canadian cattle The Bush administration on Wednesday slightly backed off on opening the borders to Canadian cattle and beef starting March 7. Because its investigations of mad cow disease in Canada are incomplete, there will be a delay in admitting meat from cattle that were 30 months or older when slaughtered, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said. This is consistent with the policy of keeping out live cattle of that age because they are considered more at risk for having the brain-wasting disease. The administration's plans are still on track to open the border for younger animals and meat from those animals, which is expected to significantly increase U.S. supplies and hold down prices....
Good boots, publicity helped Justin flourish The first three pairs of boots that H.J. "Joe" Justin made in his small shop in Spanish Fort were sturdy and long-wearing, which made their buyers happy. Soon cattle herders along the Chisholm Trail and down into Texas knew about Justin's boots. By the end of 1879, his first year in business, Justin had sold $1,000 worth of boots and hired a full-time employee, an elderly leather tanner named Bill Grace. By 1887, the 28-year-old Justin was working night and day to keep up with the demand for boots. And he had won the hand of 24-year-old Annie Allen, the daughter of Spanish Fort's doctor. They were married Jan. 12. Annie pitched in, even designing a self-measuring kit after a Montana rancher ordered boots for his cowhands, who could not come to Spanish Fort for a fitting. The invention created a mail-order business....
Hollywood Honors Singing Cowboy Gene Autry The late Gene Autry, Hollywood's best-known singing cowboy, has been honored in Hollywood, where he made his fortune and defined a movie genre. The intersection at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue was Gene Autry's first Hollywood home. Seventy years ago, it was the site of the old Hollywood Hotel, where he lived for a time after moving to Los Angeles from Chicago. Today, it is a tourist destination and home of the Kodak Theatre, where the Academy Awards, or Oscars, are presented each year. "It is Hollywood's 118th birthday, and we celebrate it by dedicating this corner to forever be known as 'Gene Autry Square'," he announced. Gene Autry is the only entertainer with five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for each branch of the entertainment business: movies, television, radio, stage performance and music....
The bucks stop in Fort Worth for Durango The bull Durango must have wondered what all of the hoopla was about Saturday night at the Southwestern Exposition Livestock Show and Rodeo. There were highlights of his career presented on the video boards throughout the arena. Rodeo announcer Bob Tallman was waxing eloquently about the bull's outstanding career. And the 5,700 fans at Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth were on the edge of their seats. It was a special night for the bull that is owned by Neal and Jim Gay of Mesquite, the Fort Worth rodeo's senior producers. This would be his last appearance as a bucking bull....
Permalink 0 comments
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY CONCERT TO BENEFIT KLAMATH FALLS AG PRODUCERS
Michael Martin Murphey(www.michaelmartinmurphey.com ), the man who gave the world the classic song "Wildfire", and the Best-Selling Cowboy Singer in world today, is dedicating his performance on Sunday, February 13th at 3PM at the Ross Ragland Theater in Klamath Falls, Oregon to the farmers and ranchers of the region. The performance will be followed by a benefit dinner at the Ross Ragland, hosted by MMM for Paragon Foundation. Mr. Murphey has dedicated a portion of his earnings from the concert, and all proceeds from the benefit dinner, to the Paragon Foundation. The money will go to Paragon to be for the organization(s) Paragon chooses for the purpose of continuing the Klamath region farmers and ranchers fight for water rights, and to attorneys or researchers of Paragon's choice to aid in the battle. Concert tickets are $25, and benefit dinner tickets are $30, and can be obtained by calling 1-888- 627-5484, or obtaining order forms online. The Ross Ragland Theater is located at 218 N. 7th Street, Klamath Falls, Oregon, 97601. www.rrtheater.org. Along with his classic hits and cowboy songs, Murphey will be introducing new music from his upcoming Spring album release on Westfest Records, STORM OVER THE RANGELANDS/COWBOY SONGS VOL. 5.
Permalink 0 comments
Michael Martin Murphey(www.michaelmartinmurphey.com ), the man who gave the world the classic song "Wildfire", and the Best-Selling Cowboy Singer in world today, is dedicating his performance on Sunday, February 13th at 3PM at the Ross Ragland Theater in Klamath Falls, Oregon to the farmers and ranchers of the region. The performance will be followed by a benefit dinner at the Ross Ragland, hosted by MMM for Paragon Foundation. Mr. Murphey has dedicated a portion of his earnings from the concert, and all proceeds from the benefit dinner, to the Paragon Foundation. The money will go to Paragon to be for the organization(s) Paragon chooses for the purpose of continuing the Klamath region farmers and ranchers fight for water rights, and to attorneys or researchers of Paragon's choice to aid in the battle. Concert tickets are $25, and benefit dinner tickets are $30, and can be obtained by calling 1-888- 627-5484, or obtaining order forms online. The Ross Ragland Theater is located at 218 N. 7th Street, Klamath Falls, Oregon, 97601. www.rrtheater.org. Along with his classic hits and cowboy songs, Murphey will be introducing new music from his upcoming Spring album release on Westfest Records, STORM OVER THE RANGELANDS/COWBOY SONGS VOL. 5.
Permalink 0 comments
NEWS ROUNDUP
KLAMATH: Town Hall Meeting Planned On February 24, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals effectively invalidated the listing of the Oregon Coast coho salmon as a "threatened species" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In September 2001, in Alsea Valley Alliance v. Evans, Judge Hogan ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) acted illegally in protecting fish spawning in the wild, but not hatchery fish, which are genetically identical. The NMFS' counting of only naturally spawned salmon while totally disregarding hatchery spawned salmon kept the fish count artificially low, justifying otherwise needless ESA protections and locking up land use. The Court's order invalidating and setting aside the coho listing had been postponed during the appeal and finally reinstated on February 24, 2004. Consequently, the Oregon North Coast coho listing no longer exists and may not be enforced. This decision stands to have huge implications for land stewards and natural resource providers such as farmers, ranchers, and timber harvesters as well as local governments and citizens struggling with infrastructure development of schools, hospitals, and highways....
Editorial: Time to fund, tune Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act is the source of a major Western irony: The forces most critical of delays in getting animals such as wolves and grizzly bears removed from endangered species lists also work to constrain funding for the biological research that might expedite the animals' removal. The result is that, in some cases anyway, species that probably are ready to be delisted stay in place, along with the protections that go with their endangered or threatened status. It's a kind of Catch-22: The studies and remediation it would take to get species off the lists under the law cost more money than the government has been willing to spend, with the result that the animals stay on the lists and the restrictions that gall so many farmers and ranchers stay in place....
North Port men fined $100,000 for disturbing eagle's nest Two men were ordered to pay a combined $100,000 in fines last week for cutting down a tree housing an eagle's nest, so they could sell the lot. Mylon Stockton, 36, of Noblesville, Ind., was ordered to pay a total of $90,000 for violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Co-defendant, Mark A. Borinsky, 39, of North Port, was fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to a similar offense. Both were placed on probation for one year after being sentenced by U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore in Tampa. "The existence of an endangered species on property can preclude an owner from taking any action that will disturb the nest," said Mike Elkins, USFWS special agent for the Southeast Region....
FWS reinstates 'no surprises' assurances A memo sent last month by the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to FWS regional directors is being hailed as good news by landowners such as timber operators who complete habitat conservation plans as part of their long-term operations. In his memo to the regional directors, FWS Director Steve Williams indicated that FWS has satisfied an order to complete the rulemaking process regarding incidental take permits or related documents containing "no surprises" assurances. The "no surprises" rule describes circumstances in which FWS may revoke incidental take permits issued under the Endangered Species Act. According to Williams' directive, the service can now provide assurances to landowners with HCPs that they won't lose their incidental take permits under certain circumstances. "No surprises" assurances are provided by the government to landowners who are assured that if unforeseen circumstances arise, the FWS will not require the commitment of additional land, water or financial compensation or additional restrictions on the use of land, water or other natural resources beyond the level otherwise agreed to in the habitat conservation plan without the landowner's consent....
Metropolitan Becomes First to Sign Onto 50-Year Habitat Conservation Program for Lower Colorado River After more than eight years of study and negotiation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California today became the first entity to authorize one of the nation's largest habitat conservation programs, covering 27 species along more than 450 miles of the lower Colorado River. Metropolitan's Board of Directors committed $88.5 million over the life of a 50-year program that protects the storage, release and diversion of Colorado River water from Lake Mead to the Mexico border from interruptions because of endangered species issues. The program also addresses potential impacts of projects, programs and water transfers to be realized under California's plan to reduce the state's use of Colorado River water. "Instead of a piecemeal, species-by-species approach, this multispecies program proactively addresses endangered species issues that threaten water supplies throughout the West," said Metropolitan board Chairman Wes Bannister....
Bugs lead to fires in 'overmature' forests All across the Rockies, which stretch from Canada to Mexico, there is an unprecedented amount of beetles munching through all kinds of coniferous trees. It’s not just mountain pine beetles, said Roy Mask, a U.S. Forest Service entomologist based in Gunnison. “All of the Rocky Mountains are incurring an unprecedented epidemic of pine bark beetles of all kinds,” he said. In Colorado alone there are hundreds of thousands of acres of dead trees. “The outbreak is going on a very large scale,” Mask said. At lower elevations beetles are attacking piñons, and at higher elevations there is an epidemic of beetles munching on ponderosa, lodgepole, spruce and fir. The Forest Service tallies the number of trees killed by beetles by aerial survey, and the latest results are still being tallied, Mask said....
Court ships wilds suit back to Utah The "no more wilderness settlement" is headed back to U.S. District Court in Utah. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed a bid by a coalition of environmental groups to kill the 2003 deal signed by then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton to end a Utah lawsuit. The settlement froze the state's wilderness study areas at 3.2 million acres and eliminated from consideration nearly 6 million acres of potential wilderness that was inventoried during the Clinton administration. But the appeals court did not uphold the settlement either. Instead, the panel shipped the case back to U.S. District Judge Dee Benson for further review....
No Man's Land A 60-year-old paperwork snafu could mean that a Native American family will soon be homeless. The Sharpe family has lived on 160 acres of homesteaded land in the Pahrump valley since the 1940s. But the BLM recently informed the family that the land doesn't belong to them, even though they've been paying taxes on it all these years. The property could end up in the hands of developers instead. Nye County has listed the Sharpe's as the owners for decades. But the Bureau of Land Management has decided the land does not belong to the Sharpe's because of a paperwork oversight....
BLM land sale, development boom could reshape rural Nevada county The sale of 20 square miles of federal land in Lincoln County could fuel a development boom and a 15-fold population increase in a rural county now home to fewer than 4,000 residents, officials said. The federal Bureau of Land Management has estimated that 60,000 people could live in developments in the patchwork of parcels making up 13,330 undeveloped acres offered for sale Wednesday at auction in Mesquite. Combined, the area is almost as large as New York's Manhattan island. Kevin Finn, a BLM realty specialist, called the auction historic in scale....
Nev. Officials Probe Huge Rock Slide Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. and government regulators worked Tuesday to determine the cause and potential environmental effects of a 10 million-ton rock slide at a gold mine that buried a Nevada highway. The weekend collapse of the waste rock pile at the Gold Quarry mine north of Carlin covered Nevada Route 766 for about 1,300 feet -- the length of more than four football fields, Newmont officials said. No one was injured in Saturday night's slide, which also took out power lines. Nearly 1 million tons of rock and dirt was piled up to 50 feet high on the two-lane highway that is largely used to service the mine. The road about 275 miles east of Reno near Elko is likely to be closed for days....
Conservation Group Opposes Sensenbrenner “Real ID Act” Defenders of Wildlife today announced its strong opposition to provisions of H.R. 418, the “Real ID Act,” introduced by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on January 26 and scheduled to be heard on the House floor tomorrow. Although the legislation primarily addresses national security and immigration issues, Section 102(c) of H.R. 418 also includes sweeping language allowing the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to exempt the agency from all federal, state and local environmental laws when constructing walls, fences, roads and other barriers along U.S. borders. Although Representative Sensenbrenner has repeatedly described H.R. 418 as applying only to a border fencing project in San Diego, section 102(c)(1) would in reality likely waive laws in all areas not only along, but “in the vicinity of”, U.S. international borders with both Mexico and Canada—nearly 7,500 miles in total....
Column: Giving Power to the People The World Economic Forum handed researchers a list of countries ranked by pollution levels and asked them to identify explanatory factors. The findings were a surprise. Think of the usual suspects you might expect to promote pollution. Urbanization? Car ownership? Big Oil? Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. None of these factors has predictive power. In fact, countries that score highest when it comes to clean environments also score high in terms of per capita income. On the other hand countries with poor records of environmental protection tend to have poor showings in the league tables compiled by worldwide corruption watchdog Transparency International. Nature thrives in a habitat of efficient economies and an arms length relationship between business and government. These findings offer important conclusions for environmentalists, economists and energy regulators. Vijay Vaitheeswaran spells out the implications in his book Power to the People....
After Delays, Kyoto Global Warming Pact to Start A landmark U.N. plan to curb global warming comes into force next week despite a U.S. pullout and with many countries way off course to meet promised cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2012. The Kyoto pact is meant to rein in rising temperatures that many scientists say will cause more storms, droughts and floods and raise world sea levels. Climate shifts could disrupt farming and wipe out thousands of species of animals and plants. The 141-nation protocol, which will force countries to cap emissions of gases, enters into force on Feb. 16 after years of controversy since it was agreed in 1997. Even so, many countries bound by Kyoto are running far above its overall goal of curbing rich nations' emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide from cars, factories and power plants by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Among Kyoto states, Spain and Portugal were 40.5 percent above 1990 levels in 2002, according to U.N. data. Monaco, Ireland, Greece, New Zealand and Canada are all further over 1990 levels than the United States, whose emissions are 13.1 percent over the Kyoto benchmark year....
Plan to clone giant sheep raises questions Environmental watchdogs are expected to question the potential risks of cloning the world's biggest wild sheep species to crossbreed with farmed animals in New Zealand. Forest and Bird and the Department of Conservation (DOC) are known to have concerns about the risk of feral argali eventually establishing a pest population in the wild. Forest and Bird officials fear that because argali are an endangered species in their native Asian habitat, but highly valued by affluent hunters as a trophy species, they may be deliberately released and spread in the wild....
Belt buckles are trophies fit for wranglers Richard Rattenburg, the curator of history at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, said that buckles began being awarded in rodeos during the early part of the 20th century. Credit the introduction of the belt loop on pants around 1910-1912 for the trend, Rattenburg said. "Cowboys didn't wear buckles, because they didn't wear belts, they wore suspenders," Rattenburg said. "When the buckles started being awarded, they weren't engraved and were made of relatively thin silver plate." The nine buckles awarded at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo (one for each of six events, two for team roping and one for all-around) were designed by Joanne Symons, who owns Hy O Silver in Bandera. It takes about 10 hours to fashion each sterling silver oval with its 10- and 14-carat overlays. Each buckle is worth about $1,200....
Permalink 0 comments
KLAMATH: Town Hall Meeting Planned On February 24, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals effectively invalidated the listing of the Oregon Coast coho salmon as a "threatened species" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In September 2001, in Alsea Valley Alliance v. Evans, Judge Hogan ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) acted illegally in protecting fish spawning in the wild, but not hatchery fish, which are genetically identical. The NMFS' counting of only naturally spawned salmon while totally disregarding hatchery spawned salmon kept the fish count artificially low, justifying otherwise needless ESA protections and locking up land use. The Court's order invalidating and setting aside the coho listing had been postponed during the appeal and finally reinstated on February 24, 2004. Consequently, the Oregon North Coast coho listing no longer exists and may not be enforced. This decision stands to have huge implications for land stewards and natural resource providers such as farmers, ranchers, and timber harvesters as well as local governments and citizens struggling with infrastructure development of schools, hospitals, and highways....
Editorial: Time to fund, tune Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act is the source of a major Western irony: The forces most critical of delays in getting animals such as wolves and grizzly bears removed from endangered species lists also work to constrain funding for the biological research that might expedite the animals' removal. The result is that, in some cases anyway, species that probably are ready to be delisted stay in place, along with the protections that go with their endangered or threatened status. It's a kind of Catch-22: The studies and remediation it would take to get species off the lists under the law cost more money than the government has been willing to spend, with the result that the animals stay on the lists and the restrictions that gall so many farmers and ranchers stay in place....
North Port men fined $100,000 for disturbing eagle's nest Two men were ordered to pay a combined $100,000 in fines last week for cutting down a tree housing an eagle's nest, so they could sell the lot. Mylon Stockton, 36, of Noblesville, Ind., was ordered to pay a total of $90,000 for violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. Co-defendant, Mark A. Borinsky, 39, of North Port, was fined $10,000 after pleading guilty to a similar offense. Both were placed on probation for one year after being sentenced by U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore in Tampa. "The existence of an endangered species on property can preclude an owner from taking any action that will disturb the nest," said Mike Elkins, USFWS special agent for the Southeast Region....
FWS reinstates 'no surprises' assurances A memo sent last month by the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to FWS regional directors is being hailed as good news by landowners such as timber operators who complete habitat conservation plans as part of their long-term operations. In his memo to the regional directors, FWS Director Steve Williams indicated that FWS has satisfied an order to complete the rulemaking process regarding incidental take permits or related documents containing "no surprises" assurances. The "no surprises" rule describes circumstances in which FWS may revoke incidental take permits issued under the Endangered Species Act. According to Williams' directive, the service can now provide assurances to landowners with HCPs that they won't lose their incidental take permits under certain circumstances. "No surprises" assurances are provided by the government to landowners who are assured that if unforeseen circumstances arise, the FWS will not require the commitment of additional land, water or financial compensation or additional restrictions on the use of land, water or other natural resources beyond the level otherwise agreed to in the habitat conservation plan without the landowner's consent....
Metropolitan Becomes First to Sign Onto 50-Year Habitat Conservation Program for Lower Colorado River After more than eight years of study and negotiation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California today became the first entity to authorize one of the nation's largest habitat conservation programs, covering 27 species along more than 450 miles of the lower Colorado River. Metropolitan's Board of Directors committed $88.5 million over the life of a 50-year program that protects the storage, release and diversion of Colorado River water from Lake Mead to the Mexico border from interruptions because of endangered species issues. The program also addresses potential impacts of projects, programs and water transfers to be realized under California's plan to reduce the state's use of Colorado River water. "Instead of a piecemeal, species-by-species approach, this multispecies program proactively addresses endangered species issues that threaten water supplies throughout the West," said Metropolitan board Chairman Wes Bannister....
Bugs lead to fires in 'overmature' forests All across the Rockies, which stretch from Canada to Mexico, there is an unprecedented amount of beetles munching through all kinds of coniferous trees. It’s not just mountain pine beetles, said Roy Mask, a U.S. Forest Service entomologist based in Gunnison. “All of the Rocky Mountains are incurring an unprecedented epidemic of pine bark beetles of all kinds,” he said. In Colorado alone there are hundreds of thousands of acres of dead trees. “The outbreak is going on a very large scale,” Mask said. At lower elevations beetles are attacking piñons, and at higher elevations there is an epidemic of beetles munching on ponderosa, lodgepole, spruce and fir. The Forest Service tallies the number of trees killed by beetles by aerial survey, and the latest results are still being tallied, Mask said....
Court ships wilds suit back to Utah The "no more wilderness settlement" is headed back to U.S. District Court in Utah. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed a bid by a coalition of environmental groups to kill the 2003 deal signed by then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Interior Secretary Gale Norton to end a Utah lawsuit. The settlement froze the state's wilderness study areas at 3.2 million acres and eliminated from consideration nearly 6 million acres of potential wilderness that was inventoried during the Clinton administration. But the appeals court did not uphold the settlement either. Instead, the panel shipped the case back to U.S. District Judge Dee Benson for further review....
No Man's Land A 60-year-old paperwork snafu could mean that a Native American family will soon be homeless. The Sharpe family has lived on 160 acres of homesteaded land in the Pahrump valley since the 1940s. But the BLM recently informed the family that the land doesn't belong to them, even though they've been paying taxes on it all these years. The property could end up in the hands of developers instead. Nye County has listed the Sharpe's as the owners for decades. But the Bureau of Land Management has decided the land does not belong to the Sharpe's because of a paperwork oversight....
BLM land sale, development boom could reshape rural Nevada county The sale of 20 square miles of federal land in Lincoln County could fuel a development boom and a 15-fold population increase in a rural county now home to fewer than 4,000 residents, officials said. The federal Bureau of Land Management has estimated that 60,000 people could live in developments in the patchwork of parcels making up 13,330 undeveloped acres offered for sale Wednesday at auction in Mesquite. Combined, the area is almost as large as New York's Manhattan island. Kevin Finn, a BLM realty specialist, called the auction historic in scale....
Nev. Officials Probe Huge Rock Slide Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. and government regulators worked Tuesday to determine the cause and potential environmental effects of a 10 million-ton rock slide at a gold mine that buried a Nevada highway. The weekend collapse of the waste rock pile at the Gold Quarry mine north of Carlin covered Nevada Route 766 for about 1,300 feet -- the length of more than four football fields, Newmont officials said. No one was injured in Saturday night's slide, which also took out power lines. Nearly 1 million tons of rock and dirt was piled up to 50 feet high on the two-lane highway that is largely used to service the mine. The road about 275 miles east of Reno near Elko is likely to be closed for days....
Conservation Group Opposes Sensenbrenner “Real ID Act” Defenders of Wildlife today announced its strong opposition to provisions of H.R. 418, the “Real ID Act,” introduced by House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on January 26 and scheduled to be heard on the House floor tomorrow. Although the legislation primarily addresses national security and immigration issues, Section 102(c) of H.R. 418 also includes sweeping language allowing the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to exempt the agency from all federal, state and local environmental laws when constructing walls, fences, roads and other barriers along U.S. borders. Although Representative Sensenbrenner has repeatedly described H.R. 418 as applying only to a border fencing project in San Diego, section 102(c)(1) would in reality likely waive laws in all areas not only along, but “in the vicinity of”, U.S. international borders with both Mexico and Canada—nearly 7,500 miles in total....
Column: Giving Power to the People The World Economic Forum handed researchers a list of countries ranked by pollution levels and asked them to identify explanatory factors. The findings were a surprise. Think of the usual suspects you might expect to promote pollution. Urbanization? Car ownership? Big Oil? Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. None of these factors has predictive power. In fact, countries that score highest when it comes to clean environments also score high in terms of per capita income. On the other hand countries with poor records of environmental protection tend to have poor showings in the league tables compiled by worldwide corruption watchdog Transparency International. Nature thrives in a habitat of efficient economies and an arms length relationship between business and government. These findings offer important conclusions for environmentalists, economists and energy regulators. Vijay Vaitheeswaran spells out the implications in his book Power to the People....
After Delays, Kyoto Global Warming Pact to Start A landmark U.N. plan to curb global warming comes into force next week despite a U.S. pullout and with many countries way off course to meet promised cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2012. The Kyoto pact is meant to rein in rising temperatures that many scientists say will cause more storms, droughts and floods and raise world sea levels. Climate shifts could disrupt farming and wipe out thousands of species of animals and plants. The 141-nation protocol, which will force countries to cap emissions of gases, enters into force on Feb. 16 after years of controversy since it was agreed in 1997. Even so, many countries bound by Kyoto are running far above its overall goal of curbing rich nations' emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide from cars, factories and power plants by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. Among Kyoto states, Spain and Portugal were 40.5 percent above 1990 levels in 2002, according to U.N. data. Monaco, Ireland, Greece, New Zealand and Canada are all further over 1990 levels than the United States, whose emissions are 13.1 percent over the Kyoto benchmark year....
Plan to clone giant sheep raises questions Environmental watchdogs are expected to question the potential risks of cloning the world's biggest wild sheep species to crossbreed with farmed animals in New Zealand. Forest and Bird and the Department of Conservation (DOC) are known to have concerns about the risk of feral argali eventually establishing a pest population in the wild. Forest and Bird officials fear that because argali are an endangered species in their native Asian habitat, but highly valued by affluent hunters as a trophy species, they may be deliberately released and spread in the wild....
Belt buckles are trophies fit for wranglers Richard Rattenburg, the curator of history at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, said that buckles began being awarded in rodeos during the early part of the 20th century. Credit the introduction of the belt loop on pants around 1910-1912 for the trend, Rattenburg said. "Cowboys didn't wear buckles, because they didn't wear belts, they wore suspenders," Rattenburg said. "When the buckles started being awarded, they weren't engraved and were made of relatively thin silver plate." The nine buckles awarded at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo (one for each of six events, two for team roping and one for all-around) were designed by Joanne Symons, who owns Hy O Silver in Bandera. It takes about 10 hours to fashion each sterling silver oval with its 10- and 14-carat overlays. Each buckle is worth about $1,200....
Permalink 0 comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
MAD COW DISEASE
Japan Takes Step Toward Lifting U.S. Beef Ban Japan moved a step closer to partially lifting a ban on U.S. beef imports after a government panel accepted U.S. assurances that a specific grade of meat would be free of mad-cow disease. The U.S. welcomed the panel's recommendations, but the findings angered some Japanese consumer groups that said they still are worried about the safety of U.S. beef. The panel's decision, if accepted by the government, will clear the way for Japan to begin importing U.S. grade A40 beef, which comes primarily from cattle aged 12-17 months. Panel chairman Akihiro Okitani, a professor at the Nippon Veterinary and Animal Science University, told reporters there is a high probability meat of this grade is free of mad-cow disease. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns yesterday praised Japan's decision to accept an American plan for verifying the age of U.S. cattle, calling it an "important step" toward resuming bilateral beef trade. He also called upon Japan to "expedite" its process for ending a ban on U.S. beef....
New tests point to BSE in Scottish goat A Scottish goat believed to have died from scrapie is now thought to have had mad cow disease. The goat died in 1990 but new tests on a stored sample of tissue revealed traits similar to those from goats experimentally infected with BSE. Unlike scrapie, BSE can infect humans and produce the fatal brain disease, variant CJD. Although it has always been accepted as theoretically possible that sheep and goats could have BSE, it was not until last month that the disease was positively identified in a species other than cattle....
Panel Suggests Blood Safeguard for Mad Cow To help prevent spread of the human form of mad cow disease, individuals who received a blood transfusion in France since 1980 should be barred from donating blood in the United States, a federal advisory panel recommended Tuesday. The members of the Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee said this would somewhat strengthen safeguards for the U.S. blood supply without significantly limiting the pool of potential donors. The panel voted 12-3 with one abstention. But it rejected a proposal to bar donors who had received transfusions anywhere in Europe. That vote was 15-0 with one abstention. The panel acted as concerns are growing that the brain-wasting disease can be spread through transfusion. In Britain, two cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as the human form is known, are believed to have been caused by transfusions from infected donors....
Permalink 0 comments
Japan Takes Step Toward Lifting U.S. Beef Ban Japan moved a step closer to partially lifting a ban on U.S. beef imports after a government panel accepted U.S. assurances that a specific grade of meat would be free of mad-cow disease. The U.S. welcomed the panel's recommendations, but the findings angered some Japanese consumer groups that said they still are worried about the safety of U.S. beef. The panel's decision, if accepted by the government, will clear the way for Japan to begin importing U.S. grade A40 beef, which comes primarily from cattle aged 12-17 months. Panel chairman Akihiro Okitani, a professor at the Nippon Veterinary and Animal Science University, told reporters there is a high probability meat of this grade is free of mad-cow disease. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns yesterday praised Japan's decision to accept an American plan for verifying the age of U.S. cattle, calling it an "important step" toward resuming bilateral beef trade. He also called upon Japan to "expedite" its process for ending a ban on U.S. beef....
New tests point to BSE in Scottish goat A Scottish goat believed to have died from scrapie is now thought to have had mad cow disease. The goat died in 1990 but new tests on a stored sample of tissue revealed traits similar to those from goats experimentally infected with BSE. Unlike scrapie, BSE can infect humans and produce the fatal brain disease, variant CJD. Although it has always been accepted as theoretically possible that sheep and goats could have BSE, it was not until last month that the disease was positively identified in a species other than cattle....
Panel Suggests Blood Safeguard for Mad Cow To help prevent spread of the human form of mad cow disease, individuals who received a blood transfusion in France since 1980 should be barred from donating blood in the United States, a federal advisory panel recommended Tuesday. The members of the Food and Drug Administration's advisory committee said this would somewhat strengthen safeguards for the U.S. blood supply without significantly limiting the pool of potential donors. The panel voted 12-3 with one abstention. But it rejected a proposal to bar donors who had received transfusions anywhere in Europe. That vote was 15-0 with one abstention. The panel acted as concerns are growing that the brain-wasting disease can be spread through transfusion. In Britain, two cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as the human form is known, are believed to have been caused by transfusions from infected donors....
Permalink 0 comments
NEWS ROUNDUP
2005 grazing fee announced by BLM/Forest Service The Federal grazing fee for Western public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service will be $1.79 per animal unit month (AUM) in 2005, up from $1.43 in 2004. The newly adjusted fee, which takes effect March 1, applies to more than 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM and more than 8,000 permits administered by the Forest Service. The formula used for calculating the grazing fee, established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act, has continued under a presidential Executive Order issued in 1986. Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level. Without the 25 percent cap, the 2005 fee would have risen to $1.99 per AUM. An AUM is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month....
Two new bison bills introduced in Legislature Two new bison bills have been introduced to the Montana Legislature, giving lawmakers even more to chew on in what has been a confusing and contentious situation for years. One bill calls for the spaying or castrating of animals leaving Yellowstone National Park, then shipping them to Indian reservations. The second removes some authority over bison from the Montana Department of Livestock....
Bill tackles worry over lions Ranchers in the hills along the Central Valley keep close watch over their sheep, cattle and dogs, fearful that a mountain lion will swoop in for the kill. Since the early 1970s — the last time mountain lion hunting was legal in California — the state has issued an increasing number of permits to kill lions that have attacked livestock and pets. Documented attacks on people have been more frequent, too, with 10 in the past 15 years, compared with five over the 100-year period ending in 1990....
Scientists Ordered Not to Complete Survey The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has directed its scientists not to respond to surveys even on personal time unless the agency pre-approves the survey questions, according to directives released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under this new policy, employees face disciplinary action for disclosing their personal views of their work at a public agency. In November, the two organizations distributed a 42-question survey to more than 1,400 Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, ecologists, botanists and other science professionals across the country. The survey focuses on employee perceptions about scientific integrity within USFWS, as well as political interference, resources and morale. This survey, like many conducted by PEER since 1995, was mailed to work addresses. But, in reversal of policy established in 2001, the agency ordered scientists not to fill out the surveys even on their own time. Notwithstanding that order, more than 400 scientists, (29.4%), returned the survey. Results will be released Wednesday, February 9, at 1:00 p.m. EST....
Old age getting best of world's second biggest tree Old age has gotten the best of the second-biggest tree in the world. The giant sequoia known as the Washington Tree may not live much longer after suffering major damage in recent weeks from heavy snow and strong winds, according to officials at Sequoia National Park. The tree once stood more than 254 feet tall with a base circumference slightly more than 101 feet, according to the National Park Service. But the ancient giant lost its crown during a forest fire about 16 months ago. Researchers also discovered that the old tree was largely hollow, and recent storms took away much of the upper shell trunk....
A line in the snow The trees of Hope Valley are flocked and stately. All along Forestdale Creek Road, about a dozen miles south of Lake Tahoe, the scenery is straight out of the Hallmark winter collection. But don't be deceived. In the nationwide scuffle between snowmobilers and those who scorn them, this is contested territory. "You can hear them for miles," says Debbi Waldear, a champion cross-country skier and longtime local crusader against snowmobile traffic. Then she returns to her smooth stroke and long strides, a tiny, wiry figure gliding through pines on a lonely weekday afternoon. Her dog, Sage, bounds alongside. At the moment, thanks to a federal judge in Sacramento, Waldear and fellow crusaders are down, and the snowmobilers are on top. But this battle has been seesawing for 12 years, and nobody expects it to end soon. If the big noise in Hope Valley has shown anything, it's that snowmobilers are from Mars and skiers are from Venus....
Column: Can't See the Forest for the Symbols Tidy symbols tend to be more attractive than messy facts, and this is especially true in environmental politics. But choosing symbols over facts can be self-defeating, on both sides of conservation issues. And it isn't good for the environment either. One such symbol is the forest fire. The Bush administration is saying that fires in national forests, like southwestern Oregon's 2002 Biscuit Fire, threaten local communities and "forest health" and must be controlled by post-fire management such as salvage logging. The facts are messier, however. The mixed conifer forest in the Siskiyou Mountains, where the Biscuit Fire occurred, is mostly "fire-adapted" — that is, it benefits from fire, ecologically speaking. (And if fire suppression hadn't been practiced for nearly a century in the forest, the 2002 blaze wouldn't have been as destructive to human purposes as it was.)....
The Nature Conservancy announces cross-border project A cross-border partnership between The Nature Conservancy in Arizona and in Mexico will help to protect the largest and most ecologically important of the fresh water sources of the fragile San Pedro River—which flows to the north from Mexico into southeastern Arizona—by 2006, representatives of the two programs announced today. The Conservancy has been working in several ways to protect the entire San Pedro River watershed for 30 years. Toward that goal, the Conservancy and its Mexican partners plan to establish a 10,000-acre preserve at a lush and biologically rich site, known as Rancho Los Fresnos, at the river’s key source south of the international border in northeastern Sonora, Mexico, near Sierra Vista, Arizona. The historic working ranch has been sensitively managed by the same family for generations. The ranch also anchors the largest ciénega, an isolated desert spring or marsh, remaining in the San Pedro River watershed area, and links to one of the largest and highest quality grassland valleys in a region spanning several states and Mexico....
CA Apartment Fire Could Be Eco-Terror Officials are investigating whether an early morning fire at brand new apartment complex may be the work of radical environmentalists who also claimed responsibility for other recent Northern California arsons. Sutter Creek Chief of Police says the fire at the 128-unit Pinewoods apartment complex broke out around 3 am. Only two apartments were occupied and a fire suppression system confined the damage to a few units. Duke says there were seven fires and investigators found incendiary devices with crude triggering mechanisms. He says graffiti found near the fire said: "We will win -- ELF." An FBI-led task force is investigating whether recent fires at construction sites in Lincoln and Auburn are the work of a radical environmental group called the Earth Liberation Front -- or ELF....
Immigration bill could settle dispute over border fence The federal government and a powerful local Republican congressman have been pushing for years to fortify the 3 1/2-mile stretch of border just north of Tijuana, Mexico. Their plan is opposed by California coastal regulators and environmentalists who say it could harm a fragile Pacific estuary. Now supporters may be getting closer to victory. A provision in an immigration bill expected to pass the House next week would give the homeland security secretary authority to move forward with the project regardless of any laws that stand in the way, and would bar courts from hearing lawsuits against it....
Vegas suburb in Arizona? As Leonard Mardian wheels past vacant mine shafts and crumbling windmills in the Joshua tree-covered northwestern Arizona hills, his dreams are as large as anyone else rolling the dice 50 miles north in Las Vegas. Some day, Mardian says, his wild, remote Ranch at White Hills, south of Hoover Dam, will be home to 100,000 urban refugees fleeing high prices and congestion. It will be Las Vegas' own personal Arizona suburb. The four-lane bridge that will bypass the narrow U.S. 93 across Hoover Dam will be good to go in a little more than three years, cutting the commute time for Las Vegas-area workers to about an hour.... Meanwhile, Las Vegas is becoming increasingly landlocked in all other directions.
Bush trims Interior Dept 2006 budget to $10.65 bln - The Bush administration on Monday proposed cuts in funding for U.S. national parks and Indian affairs to trim the Interior Department's fiscal 2006 budget by 1 percent to $10.65 billion. President George W. Bush's budget request would cut the department's spending by $119 million from the $10.77 billion allocated by Congress for the current spending year. Funding for the National Park Service would fall $66 million to $2.25 billion, led by a $92 million decline in its land acquisition program. Still, spending to reduce a multi-billion dollar park maintenance backlog on roads and facilities would rise $29 million to $717 million. Also facing a cut is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would see its budget drop by $108 million to $2.19 billion due mostly to less funding for construction projects. The Interior Department budget plan also aims to raise fees charged to energy companies for permits and applications to drill in western lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and in offshore waters run by the Minerals Management Service....
Budget slashes farm payouts President Bush's budget for 2006 would cut agricultural subsidies by $5.7 billion over the next decade, a proposal already viewed skeptically by farmers and Congress. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns yesterday said the rollback for the politically popular payouts sends a signal "that everybody is going to be a part of this [deficit-cutting] initiative," a reference to an overall spending blueprint in which Mr. Bush proposed trimming or eliminating dozens of domestic programs. The Agriculture Department's overall budget for fiscal 2006 would remain close to 2005 spending levels, but payment to farmers and crop insurance programs would be cut while food safety, food stamp and child nutrition programs would be boosted. The cuts would especially affect major Southern crops, such as cotton and rice, by cutting payments to growers by 5 percent, lowering an annual ceiling on payments to individuals involved in farming to $250,000 from $360,000, and limiting who is eligible to receive such payments. Large farming operations often are broken up into several small corporations so they can receive several payments, a practice that would be curbed....
Big Pickup Trucks Eclipsing S.U.V.'s The big sport utility vehicle is in a slump. But the big pickup truck? It's going full tilt. S.U.V. sales continued to grow last year as buyers sought smaller-size models. But sales of larger S.U.V.'s like the Ford Explorer, Hummer H2 and Chevy Suburban appear to have reached a plateau. And for the first time in a decade, the sales growth of full-size pickup trucks outpaced the growth of S.U.V.'s over all, according to an analysis by the Ford Motor Company. Sales of full-size pickups rose 6.6 percent last year from 2003, compared with overall S.U.V. sales growth of 4.3 percent, Ward's AutoInfoBank data shows. While environmentalists and safety advocates have long trained their ire on the S.U.V., the growth in popularity of the full-size pickup truck, which has risen to 15 percent of new vehicle sales in the last dozen years from 8.5 percent, has been another culprit in the nation's swelling dependence on foreign oil. The average pickup truck has become 40 percent heavier in the last two decades and 11 percent less fuel-efficient, according to estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency....
Songs from the heart of the West Three years ago, Canadian music icon Ian Tyson pointed his truck up a Nevada gravel road leading to a small box canyon. At the end of it was a secluded cabin, cozy and quiet. Surrounded by the austere, expansive landscape that is as central as his silky baritone to his long string of critically acclaimed albums, Tyson, then 67, had come to write songs. If I can't write 'em here, he thought, I can't write 'em any more. Turns out he can write 'em just fine. Tyson's newly released Songs From the Gravel Road, his first studio album in six years, offers 12 songs from both the heart of the West and the heart of a man disillusioned by the failure of love and the souring of a culture....
It's All Trew: Borrowing can turn friends to enemies A recent coffee shop session lasted two hours as the "Blow & Slurp" bunch recalled sad tales about borrowing and loaning various items down through the years. At the end we agreed that more friends and neighbors were lost, more feelings hurt and more enemies made over borrowing or loaning things than all other causes added together. One man recalled a neighbor too tight to own a horse and saddle, who borrowed his neighbor's to pen his small herd of cattle. He was not an experienced rider and fell off the horse, experiencing serious injury. He sued the horse owner and won his case....
Permalink 0 comments
2005 grazing fee announced by BLM/Forest Service The Federal grazing fee for Western public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service will be $1.79 per animal unit month (AUM) in 2005, up from $1.43 in 2004. The newly adjusted fee, which takes effect March 1, applies to more than 18,000 grazing permits and leases administered by the BLM and more than 8,000 permits administered by the Forest Service. The formula used for calculating the grazing fee, established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act, has continued under a presidential Executive Order issued in 1986. Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per AUM, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level. Without the 25 percent cap, the 2005 fee would have risen to $1.99 per AUM. An AUM is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month....
Two new bison bills introduced in Legislature Two new bison bills have been introduced to the Montana Legislature, giving lawmakers even more to chew on in what has been a confusing and contentious situation for years. One bill calls for the spaying or castrating of animals leaving Yellowstone National Park, then shipping them to Indian reservations. The second removes some authority over bison from the Montana Department of Livestock....
Bill tackles worry over lions Ranchers in the hills along the Central Valley keep close watch over their sheep, cattle and dogs, fearful that a mountain lion will swoop in for the kill. Since the early 1970s — the last time mountain lion hunting was legal in California — the state has issued an increasing number of permits to kill lions that have attacked livestock and pets. Documented attacks on people have been more frequent, too, with 10 in the past 15 years, compared with five over the 100-year period ending in 1990....
Scientists Ordered Not to Complete Survey The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has directed its scientists not to respond to surveys even on personal time unless the agency pre-approves the survey questions, according to directives released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under this new policy, employees face disciplinary action for disclosing their personal views of their work at a public agency. In November, the two organizations distributed a 42-question survey to more than 1,400 Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, ecologists, botanists and other science professionals across the country. The survey focuses on employee perceptions about scientific integrity within USFWS, as well as political interference, resources and morale. This survey, like many conducted by PEER since 1995, was mailed to work addresses. But, in reversal of policy established in 2001, the agency ordered scientists not to fill out the surveys even on their own time. Notwithstanding that order, more than 400 scientists, (29.4%), returned the survey. Results will be released Wednesday, February 9, at 1:00 p.m. EST....
Old age getting best of world's second biggest tree Old age has gotten the best of the second-biggest tree in the world. The giant sequoia known as the Washington Tree may not live much longer after suffering major damage in recent weeks from heavy snow and strong winds, according to officials at Sequoia National Park. The tree once stood more than 254 feet tall with a base circumference slightly more than 101 feet, according to the National Park Service. But the ancient giant lost its crown during a forest fire about 16 months ago. Researchers also discovered that the old tree was largely hollow, and recent storms took away much of the upper shell trunk....
A line in the snow The trees of Hope Valley are flocked and stately. All along Forestdale Creek Road, about a dozen miles south of Lake Tahoe, the scenery is straight out of the Hallmark winter collection. But don't be deceived. In the nationwide scuffle between snowmobilers and those who scorn them, this is contested territory. "You can hear them for miles," says Debbi Waldear, a champion cross-country skier and longtime local crusader against snowmobile traffic. Then she returns to her smooth stroke and long strides, a tiny, wiry figure gliding through pines on a lonely weekday afternoon. Her dog, Sage, bounds alongside. At the moment, thanks to a federal judge in Sacramento, Waldear and fellow crusaders are down, and the snowmobilers are on top. But this battle has been seesawing for 12 years, and nobody expects it to end soon. If the big noise in Hope Valley has shown anything, it's that snowmobilers are from Mars and skiers are from Venus....
Column: Can't See the Forest for the Symbols Tidy symbols tend to be more attractive than messy facts, and this is especially true in environmental politics. But choosing symbols over facts can be self-defeating, on both sides of conservation issues. And it isn't good for the environment either. One such symbol is the forest fire. The Bush administration is saying that fires in national forests, like southwestern Oregon's 2002 Biscuit Fire, threaten local communities and "forest health" and must be controlled by post-fire management such as salvage logging. The facts are messier, however. The mixed conifer forest in the Siskiyou Mountains, where the Biscuit Fire occurred, is mostly "fire-adapted" — that is, it benefits from fire, ecologically speaking. (And if fire suppression hadn't been practiced for nearly a century in the forest, the 2002 blaze wouldn't have been as destructive to human purposes as it was.)....
The Nature Conservancy announces cross-border project A cross-border partnership between The Nature Conservancy in Arizona and in Mexico will help to protect the largest and most ecologically important of the fresh water sources of the fragile San Pedro River—which flows to the north from Mexico into southeastern Arizona—by 2006, representatives of the two programs announced today. The Conservancy has been working in several ways to protect the entire San Pedro River watershed for 30 years. Toward that goal, the Conservancy and its Mexican partners plan to establish a 10,000-acre preserve at a lush and biologically rich site, known as Rancho Los Fresnos, at the river’s key source south of the international border in northeastern Sonora, Mexico, near Sierra Vista, Arizona. The historic working ranch has been sensitively managed by the same family for generations. The ranch also anchors the largest ciénega, an isolated desert spring or marsh, remaining in the San Pedro River watershed area, and links to one of the largest and highest quality grassland valleys in a region spanning several states and Mexico....
CA Apartment Fire Could Be Eco-Terror Officials are investigating whether an early morning fire at brand new apartment complex may be the work of radical environmentalists who also claimed responsibility for other recent Northern California arsons. Sutter Creek Chief of Police says the fire at the 128-unit Pinewoods apartment complex broke out around 3 am. Only two apartments were occupied and a fire suppression system confined the damage to a few units. Duke says there were seven fires and investigators found incendiary devices with crude triggering mechanisms. He says graffiti found near the fire said: "We will win -- ELF." An FBI-led task force is investigating whether recent fires at construction sites in Lincoln and Auburn are the work of a radical environmental group called the Earth Liberation Front -- or ELF....
Immigration bill could settle dispute over border fence The federal government and a powerful local Republican congressman have been pushing for years to fortify the 3 1/2-mile stretch of border just north of Tijuana, Mexico. Their plan is opposed by California coastal regulators and environmentalists who say it could harm a fragile Pacific estuary. Now supporters may be getting closer to victory. A provision in an immigration bill expected to pass the House next week would give the homeland security secretary authority to move forward with the project regardless of any laws that stand in the way, and would bar courts from hearing lawsuits against it....
Vegas suburb in Arizona? As Leonard Mardian wheels past vacant mine shafts and crumbling windmills in the Joshua tree-covered northwestern Arizona hills, his dreams are as large as anyone else rolling the dice 50 miles north in Las Vegas. Some day, Mardian says, his wild, remote Ranch at White Hills, south of Hoover Dam, will be home to 100,000 urban refugees fleeing high prices and congestion. It will be Las Vegas' own personal Arizona suburb. The four-lane bridge that will bypass the narrow U.S. 93 across Hoover Dam will be good to go in a little more than three years, cutting the commute time for Las Vegas-area workers to about an hour.... Meanwhile, Las Vegas is becoming increasingly landlocked in all other directions.
Bush trims Interior Dept 2006 budget to $10.65 bln - The Bush administration on Monday proposed cuts in funding for U.S. national parks and Indian affairs to trim the Interior Department's fiscal 2006 budget by 1 percent to $10.65 billion. President George W. Bush's budget request would cut the department's spending by $119 million from the $10.77 billion allocated by Congress for the current spending year. Funding for the National Park Service would fall $66 million to $2.25 billion, led by a $92 million decline in its land acquisition program. Still, spending to reduce a multi-billion dollar park maintenance backlog on roads and facilities would rise $29 million to $717 million. Also facing a cut is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would see its budget drop by $108 million to $2.19 billion due mostly to less funding for construction projects. The Interior Department budget plan also aims to raise fees charged to energy companies for permits and applications to drill in western lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and in offshore waters run by the Minerals Management Service....
Budget slashes farm payouts President Bush's budget for 2006 would cut agricultural subsidies by $5.7 billion over the next decade, a proposal already viewed skeptically by farmers and Congress. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns yesterday said the rollback for the politically popular payouts sends a signal "that everybody is going to be a part of this [deficit-cutting] initiative," a reference to an overall spending blueprint in which Mr. Bush proposed trimming or eliminating dozens of domestic programs. The Agriculture Department's overall budget for fiscal 2006 would remain close to 2005 spending levels, but payment to farmers and crop insurance programs would be cut while food safety, food stamp and child nutrition programs would be boosted. The cuts would especially affect major Southern crops, such as cotton and rice, by cutting payments to growers by 5 percent, lowering an annual ceiling on payments to individuals involved in farming to $250,000 from $360,000, and limiting who is eligible to receive such payments. Large farming operations often are broken up into several small corporations so they can receive several payments, a practice that would be curbed....
Big Pickup Trucks Eclipsing S.U.V.'s The big sport utility vehicle is in a slump. But the big pickup truck? It's going full tilt. S.U.V. sales continued to grow last year as buyers sought smaller-size models. But sales of larger S.U.V.'s like the Ford Explorer, Hummer H2 and Chevy Suburban appear to have reached a plateau. And for the first time in a decade, the sales growth of full-size pickup trucks outpaced the growth of S.U.V.'s over all, according to an analysis by the Ford Motor Company. Sales of full-size pickups rose 6.6 percent last year from 2003, compared with overall S.U.V. sales growth of 4.3 percent, Ward's AutoInfoBank data shows. While environmentalists and safety advocates have long trained their ire on the S.U.V., the growth in popularity of the full-size pickup truck, which has risen to 15 percent of new vehicle sales in the last dozen years from 8.5 percent, has been another culprit in the nation's swelling dependence on foreign oil. The average pickup truck has become 40 percent heavier in the last two decades and 11 percent less fuel-efficient, according to estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency....
Songs from the heart of the West Three years ago, Canadian music icon Ian Tyson pointed his truck up a Nevada gravel road leading to a small box canyon. At the end of it was a secluded cabin, cozy and quiet. Surrounded by the austere, expansive landscape that is as central as his silky baritone to his long string of critically acclaimed albums, Tyson, then 67, had come to write songs. If I can't write 'em here, he thought, I can't write 'em any more. Turns out he can write 'em just fine. Tyson's newly released Songs From the Gravel Road, his first studio album in six years, offers 12 songs from both the heart of the West and the heart of a man disillusioned by the failure of love and the souring of a culture....
It's All Trew: Borrowing can turn friends to enemies A recent coffee shop session lasted two hours as the "Blow & Slurp" bunch recalled sad tales about borrowing and loaning various items down through the years. At the end we agreed that more friends and neighbors were lost, more feelings hurt and more enemies made over borrowing or loaning things than all other causes added together. One man recalled a neighbor too tight to own a horse and saddle, who borrowed his neighbor's to pen his small herd of cattle. He was not an experienced rider and fell off the horse, experiencing serious injury. He sued the horse owner and won his case....
Permalink 0 comments
Monday, February 07, 2005
NEWS ROUNDUP
Rules help ranchers reduce wolf kills Starting today, ranchers and others have more power to stop wolves attacking livestock or causing other problems. The new rules by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service apply to wolf populations in Montana and Idaho. They don't apply in Wyoming because a state management plan for wolves has not been approved by federal officials. The new rules are meant as a transition toward passing management of wolves to state authorities and easing rules that govern the treatment of problem rules. The rules, applying to the "experimental" wolf population outside Yellowstone National Park, are not affected by a federal judge's ruling last week that said the Bush administration was wrong for lessening federal protections for some wolves....
Oregon wolf plan critics bite back Opponents of a draft plan for managing wolves that wander into Oregon are posting an 11th-hour attempt to scuttle it, claiming a recent federal court decision re-listing wolves as "endangered" renders the plan toothless and useless. Under Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones, wolves lost their 21-month stay on the threatened species rolls and were returned to the more stringent status as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling means only federal agents can kill wolves that attack livestock. Oregon’s plan includes protocols for allowing ranchers to shoot offending wolves, which can be legal under threatened status....
Forest Service criticized over grazing - About three dozen citizens, many of them angry, showed up at a meeting in Spearfish last week to protest cattle grazing on a 524-acre parcel of Black Hills National Forest. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation helped the U.S. Forest Service buy the land more than a decade ago as habitat for wildlife — including elk, deer and other species. When the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation sold the Gonzales property to the Forest Service in 1994, the agreement to manage it as wildlife habitat was put into writing in a "memorandum of understanding." Two or three years ago, members of the elk foundation began complaining that grass in the Gonzales meadow that had been grazed too short to provide food for wildlife. They also objected to road construction on the property, which included large sediment traps. Elk foundation members were even more upset when they discovered that Forest Service officials at the Northern Hills Ranger District in Spearfish were not even aware of the 1994 memorandum. District Ranger Pam Brown, who came to Spearfish in 1999, said the Forest Service had no mechanism to guarantee that local land managers would see such documents. In fact, the road construction on the Gonzales property was authorized by a timber sale that was approved in the late 1990s, with no mention of the memorandum....
Renzi wants sensitivity, flexibility in beef country Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., says federal land-management agents need to show a little more sensitivity to Arizona's ranchers. To make sure they do, Renzi, a member of the House Resources Committee, has just introduced his "Cattlemen's Bill of Rights," House Resolution 411. Among other things, Renzi's bill requires the secretary of agriculture and the secretary of the interior to develop a "sensitivity" training course so their land-management officers fully understand "the historical uses" of the land they oversee and the impact their decisions have on livestock ranchers. Renzi argues that cattle numbers are being significantly reduced in parts of the state not just by drought, but by a lack of flexibility by the federal government....
Mill closure raises fears over future of program For the past three decades, the Forest Service has been looking out for rural timber towns through a program that sets aside logs for small lumber mills. It wasn't enough, however, to keep Eureka's Owens and Hurst mill alive, and owner Jim Hurst's announcement that he would close has left some in the agency worried about the future of the small-business program. "It's a real concern," said Pat Potter, resource specialist and timber contracting officer on the Kootenai National Forest. "People are worried, and that's really the first time that's happened." The small-business set-aside program started in the mid-1970s, when the industry and the agency got together with the nation's Small Business Administration to guarantee that little guys had access to a slice of the timber pie....
Piecing together bear puzzle project involving bear hunters, antibiotics and barbed wire has provided revealing insights into one of the world's densest populations of black bears, on Kuiu Island in Southeast Alaska. Bear researcher Lily Peacock found that Kuiu Island, about 40 miles west of Petersburg, has three to five bears per square mile. Peacock also found that surprisingly high numbers of bears coexist seasonally on salmon streams on the island. She counted 115 different bears using a one-mile stretch of stream during a two-month period....
Lack of study funding keeps many of Montana's imperiled animals from being delisted Montana's grizzly bears and wolves are on the rise. Black-footed ferrets continue to struggle. They are among the 11 animals in the state listed as threatened or endangered in the federal Endangered Species Act. The act was created in 1973 to slow the gradual extinction of plants and animals. But its implementation is as much about politics as science. And 2005 is likely to see new attempts to change the act. Out in the field, however, biologists and others continue their work to document the various species and manage their habit. But even as the populations of some animals rebound and stabilize, lack of scientific review — more specifically, the money to fund it — hampers the ability to remove animals from the list....
Fighting upstream battle? In November, the Bush administration announced a near-reversal of the environmental policies that were instituted to rebuild salmon runs - the time the fish swim back upriver - in Washington, Oregon and northern California. In a much stricter interpretation of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, the administration announced that it will protect as "critical habitat" only rivers and streams currently occupied by salmon, not areas that were once, or might become, part of their habitat. The new interpretation reduces protected territory by 80 percent, federal officials say. The administration also has proposed to stop protecting land on the region's military bases and in federally owned forests. The decision is being challenged in court by environmental groups and will not become final before summer. The decision came within months of the administration's conclusion that the removal of dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers, which would have benefited salmon recovery, is no longer an option, and its decision to count hatchery-raised salmon as wild salmon when considering population....
Idaho outlaw set free after 22 years Claude Dallas, Idaho's most infamous outlaw, was released from prison Sunday morning after serving 22 years for the execution-style slayings of two state wildlife officers in 1981. Dallas, 54, gained notoriety as both a callous criminal and a modern-day mountain man at odds with the government. He was released Sunday after his 30-year term was cut by eight years for good behavior. Dallas was convicted of manslaughter in 1982 for the shooting deaths of Conley Elms and Bill Pogue, officers for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game who were investigating reports that Dallas was poaching bobcats in remote southwestern Idaho. The case made national headlines and turned Dallas into an anti-government folk hero for some, a reputation heightened by his 1986 jailbreak. Dallas hid for nearly a year before he was caught in Riverside, Calif. He was charged with escape but was acquitted by a jury after he testified he had to break out because prison guards threatened his life. Dallas has been the subject of a song, a television movie and at least two books....
GOP takes another stab at drilling in Alaska refuge For more than a decade, Republicans in Congress have been frustrated as first President Bill Clinton and then Senate Democrats blocked their efforts to allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. But after the November election, which added four new Republican senators -- and ousted several anti-drilling Democrats -- proponents are now bullish they will achieve their goal of opening what they say is America's largest untapped oil reserve. "This is probably our best shot at actually getting it through and to the president's desk," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, the Tracy Republican who has become the House's most vocal advocate for drilling in the refuge....
An Idyllic Scene Polluted With Controversy These rolling grasslands and foothills would seem a hiker's dream. The valleys are deep, the deer docile and the snowy mountain backdrop dazzling. "The wildlife is really abundant here," said Mark Sattelberg, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. "It's been pretty much undisturbed for 40 or 50 years." But critics say the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge site has been disturbed plenty. To them, the land is synonymous with government secrecy, widespread environmental violations and pollution from nuclear weapons production done here throughout the Cold War. They say the soil and water on the 6,000-acre refuge, scheduled to open in two years, remain contaminated and that recent tests found plutonium and uranium in deer living there. Federal officials said the levels were acceptable....
Column: Public may get sold down river But that's where this view of the Blue changes, where this place that BLM is pondering divestment of two key public-access tracts on a major trout stream becomes clouded in a bureaucratic haze comprised of suspicion and mistrust. Part of the suspicion arises from the fact that the proponent of the swap and owner of the ranch is Paul Tudor Jones, who amassed a large fortune as a Wall Street commodities trader and who already has established a track record of leveraging deals with BLM advantageous to his Blue Valley Ranch. The earlier exchange of similar property was completed in 1999, just in time for the ranch to start pressing for the current trade. This information proved one of the few useful tidbits gleaned from a telephone interview with Susan Cassel, realty specialist with the BLM district office in nearby Kremmling....
Committee backs fed-state land swap A major land exchange between the federal government and the state's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration got the backing Friday of a legislative committee. The House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee unanimously approved a resolution supporting what would be an 88,000-acre trade between SITLA and the Bureau of Land Management, an agreement that has received preliminary approval from federal and state land managers. Under the proposal, SITLA would swap 48,000 acres of environmentally sensitive lands along the Colorado River and near Dinosaur National Monument in exchange for 40,000 acres of BLM holdings in the gas and oil-rich Uinta Basin. The federal agency also would throw in parcels in the city of Green River and a plot near the Moab Airport as part of the deal....
Landowners oppose proposal for ATV trail in Box Elder Owners of thousands of acres on the east slope of the Wasatch Range in Box Elder County are vowing to put a stop to all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts who they say have turned their land into a playground. Streambeds and pastures are now mud bogs, signs marking private property have been ripped out of the ground and ATV trails scar hillsides, several landowners said at a meeting here Thursday night. “The non-motorized people could use it and not abuse it,” said rancher Brett Selman, who with his parents, Fred and Laura Selman of Tremonton, owns 7,000 acres in the area south of Mantua. “It's the ATV people who are causing us grief.”....
Stewards of the land Virtually unheard of before 1970, the conservation easement has emerged in the past two decades as a white knight in the battle to save open space and agricultural land. According to the nonprofit Land Trust Alliance, nearly 2.6 million acres nationwide have been protected through easements held by local and regional land trusts, compared to just 450,000 acres in 1990. But what often is overlooked is the tremendous benefit that conservation easements can offer private landowners who want to keep their beloved land in the family and make sure it continues to be used as a retreat, a farm, or a ranch, rather than a golf course or a housing development....
State judge rules in favor of East Texas landowners A state district judge has ruled that hundreds of acres of East Texas land belong to their current owners, rejecting a claim that they were improperly surveyed and should be returned to the state. One of the defendants' lawyers said he hopes Friday's judgment will end the matter, initially one of the largest land disputes in modern Texas history. The case dates back to 2003, when the plaintiffs, rancher W.L. Dixon and former surveyor Barton McDonald, filed paperwork with the Texas General Land Office, alleging a 4,662-acre "vacancy" exists between Gilmer and Longview because of incorrect surveying. A vacancy is land that still belongs to the state, usually found in a gap between surveyed tracts. In a one-page ruling issued late Friday, Judge Paul Banner wrote that Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson's determination of "no vacancy" was correct. Banner wrote that he will likely issue more detailed findings this week....
Arid Arizona Points to Global Warming as Culprit Reese Woodling remembers the mornings when he would walk the grounds of his ranch and come back with his clothes soaked with dew, moisture that fostered enough grass to feed 500 cows and their calves. But by 1993, he says, the dew was disappearing around Cascabel -- his 2,700-acre ranch in the Malpai borderlands straddling New Mexico and Arizona -- and shrubs were taking over the grassland. Five years later Woodling had sold off half his cows, and by 2004 he abandoned the ranch. Dramatic weather changes in the West -- whether it is Arizona's decade-long drought or this winter's torrential rains in Southern California -- have pushed some former skeptics to reevaluate their views on climate change. A number of scientists, and some Westerners, are now convinced that global warming is the best explanation for the higher temperatures, rapid precipitation shifts, and accelerated blooming and breeding patterns that are changing the Southwest, one of the nation's most vulnerable ecosystems....
Green causes called out of step Leaders of the environmental movement were livid last fall when Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, two little-known, itinerant environmentalists in their 30s, presented a 12,000-word thesis arguing that environmentalism was dead. It did not help that the pair first distributed their paper, "The Death of Environmentalism," at the annual meeting of deep-pocketed foundation executives who underwrite the environmental establishment. But few outsiders paid much attention at first. Then came the November elections, into which groups such as the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters poured at least $15 million, much of it to defeat President Bush, whose support for oil drilling and logging and opposition to regulating greenhouse gases have made him anathema to environmental groups. Instead, Bush and congressional champions of his agenda cemented their control in Washington at a time when battles loom over clean air and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge....
Water bill takes aim at limiting state's recreational water rights One of the more contentious water bills to be considered by state lawmakers this session is aimed at limiting water rights claimed for recreation on Colorado's rivers and streams. Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, is trying to modify the 2001 Recreation In-Channel Diversion Act, which has led to a proliferation of kayak and canoeing courses throughout the state. He claims the water parks lack controls to ensure water is not being wasted, to the detriment of other water users in violation of Colorado water law. "What we're really trying to do here is protect existing water rights," Taylor said....
Saddle Up In Steamboat Mountain towns love to shake off the winter blues with an annual winter festival. Steamboat Springs hosts the oldest with their Winter Carnival, which begins Wednesday, Feb. 9 and lasts through the weekend, on the 13th. Winter Carnival started back in 1914, as a service to the community. A highlight of Winter Carnival is the street events. Dump trucks load up with tons of snow and fill up Lincoln Avenue, which is the main drag through town. On Saturday and Sunday, local ranchers bring their best horses down to pull the kids down the street. Kids can sign up to compete in ski joring, a street slalom, a donkey jump, and more, all while being pulled behind a horse. Adults can do it while sitting on a shovel....
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo chromosomes roam The rumble from stampeding bison used to shake the earth, as thousands of the majestic animals thundered across these parts centuries ago. That sound has faded almost entirely now, and the fate of one of the last pure herds in North America - begun by famed cattleman Charles Goodnight - rests with a trio of bulls donated by media tycoon and bison rancher Ted Turner. The Texas herd, once 250 strong, has dwindled to 53, and more than a century of inbreeding threatens its survival. The herd's average age has increased by three years - bison typically live between 12 to 15 years - and the number of calves has dropped in recent years. Nine were born last year. With Turner's bulls, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas A&M University's College of Veterinarian Medicine hope to strengthen the herd and preserve an animal that symbolizes the American West....
Museum serves up revisionist view of infamous outlaw's fate While most wild west museums and historians don't believe Brushy Bill Roberts' claim of being the real Billy the Kid is true, history professor Jannay Valdez has dedicated his Billy the Kid Outlaw Museum in Canton to proving Brushy is the notorious outlaw. Through the door of the "blood red" building on the south side of Interstate 20, a museum-goer can delve into the opposing history of Billy the Kid. "The museum tells the story of Billy the Kid who died in 1881 and Billy the Kid who died in 1950," Valdez said. As legend has it, Billy the Kid was Henry McCarty, born in New York City to Catherine Antrim. He moved to the West and became a cowboy and was known as William H. Bonney....
Museum celebrating 45th birthday: Remington, 'cowgirls' exhibits featured The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is celebrating its 45th birthday with two new exhibits and a lecture by a Western art authority this weekend. "The works of Frederic Remington, one of America's best-loved artists, is being paired up with a show focusing on some of the state's most notable cowgirls, including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor," museum director Royce Kardinal said. One of the highlights at Desert Caballeros is considered his last finished work - painted before his death at the age of 48 - which is sometimes referred to as The Cigarette. Consisting of 26 works on loan from the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, N.Y., the exhibition includes 10 pieces from the museum's permanent collection. The show will run through April 24. Complementing the blockbuster Remington show is a new exhibit, "Who Really Wore the Pants in the West: Arizona Cowgirls Now and Then." Highlights include photographs from O'Connor's girlhood on southeastern Arizona's Lazy B Ranch as well as the outfit of former Wickenburg dude ranch owner Vi Wellik, which she wore in the 1969 Tournament of Roses Parade. Sculpture and paintings by Kirkland rancher Cynthia Rigden dramatizes the artistic bent of many Arizona cowgirls....
Paintings look West Which came first, the legends of the Wild West or the art of Charles Russell and Frederic Remington? The impact of the drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures by these two artists is not underestimated in an exhibit that opens Tuesday at Louisville's Speed Art Museum. "Capturing Western Legends: Russell and Remington and the Canadian Frontier" is the first exhibit to explore their Canadian experiences. The dual exposure makes it clear that both men used much from their Canadian exposure to forge the notion of frontier that has informed everything from dime novels and Halloween costumes to John Wayne movies. Russell (1864-1926) and Remington (1861-1909) were contemporaries in time and interest in depicting the far North American West of the late 19th century. However, they met only late in each artist's life, when both were unvarnished successes after forging art careers that recorded and embroidered a vanishing lifestyle....
There's poetry in them thar cowboys - a lot of it The Mongolian herdsmen didn't ride into town this year, but the llaneros from Colombia did. That both would feel at home at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering proves there's nothing provincial about cowboy culture. And the gathering is as much about culture as poetry. One thing it isn't about is nostalgia. The cowboy tradition celebrated is a living one adaptable to change. "We're looking at a contemporary culture rooted in the past, but surviving over time," says Charlie Seemann, executive director of the Western Folklife Center, which hosts the event. "We're concerned primarily with what's [happening] on the land in the West today. The poetry and songs reflect people's lives and experiences working on the ranches now."....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Some things can't be taught by a book I think of the knowledge required when I send my son to the next ridge to check for cows on the other side. Although I've spent hours on end explaining things to him, words alone can't give him a feel for his horse, a sense of where to cross an arroyo, an ability to spot a cow amidst its mesquite camouflage, a caution of "snaky" places, and the increasing confidence that takes him further from me every day. He continues to increase his cowboy savvy with every ride, every gather and every branding. Every morning when he feeds the horses, the dogs, and the birds, he adds sediment to his sea of knowledge - knowledge accrued by hand....
Permalink 0 comments
Rules help ranchers reduce wolf kills Starting today, ranchers and others have more power to stop wolves attacking livestock or causing other problems. The new rules by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service apply to wolf populations in Montana and Idaho. They don't apply in Wyoming because a state management plan for wolves has not been approved by federal officials. The new rules are meant as a transition toward passing management of wolves to state authorities and easing rules that govern the treatment of problem rules. The rules, applying to the "experimental" wolf population outside Yellowstone National Park, are not affected by a federal judge's ruling last week that said the Bush administration was wrong for lessening federal protections for some wolves....
Oregon wolf plan critics bite back Opponents of a draft plan for managing wolves that wander into Oregon are posting an 11th-hour attempt to scuttle it, claiming a recent federal court decision re-listing wolves as "endangered" renders the plan toothless and useless. Under Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones, wolves lost their 21-month stay on the threatened species rolls and were returned to the more stringent status as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling means only federal agents can kill wolves that attack livestock. Oregon’s plan includes protocols for allowing ranchers to shoot offending wolves, which can be legal under threatened status....
Forest Service criticized over grazing - About three dozen citizens, many of them angry, showed up at a meeting in Spearfish last week to protest cattle grazing on a 524-acre parcel of Black Hills National Forest. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation helped the U.S. Forest Service buy the land more than a decade ago as habitat for wildlife — including elk, deer and other species. When the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation sold the Gonzales property to the Forest Service in 1994, the agreement to manage it as wildlife habitat was put into writing in a "memorandum of understanding." Two or three years ago, members of the elk foundation began complaining that grass in the Gonzales meadow that had been grazed too short to provide food for wildlife. They also objected to road construction on the property, which included large sediment traps. Elk foundation members were even more upset when they discovered that Forest Service officials at the Northern Hills Ranger District in Spearfish were not even aware of the 1994 memorandum. District Ranger Pam Brown, who came to Spearfish in 1999, said the Forest Service had no mechanism to guarantee that local land managers would see such documents. In fact, the road construction on the Gonzales property was authorized by a timber sale that was approved in the late 1990s, with no mention of the memorandum....
Renzi wants sensitivity, flexibility in beef country Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., says federal land-management agents need to show a little more sensitivity to Arizona's ranchers. To make sure they do, Renzi, a member of the House Resources Committee, has just introduced his "Cattlemen's Bill of Rights," House Resolution 411. Among other things, Renzi's bill requires the secretary of agriculture and the secretary of the interior to develop a "sensitivity" training course so their land-management officers fully understand "the historical uses" of the land they oversee and the impact their decisions have on livestock ranchers. Renzi argues that cattle numbers are being significantly reduced in parts of the state not just by drought, but by a lack of flexibility by the federal government....
Mill closure raises fears over future of program For the past three decades, the Forest Service has been looking out for rural timber towns through a program that sets aside logs for small lumber mills. It wasn't enough, however, to keep Eureka's Owens and Hurst mill alive, and owner Jim Hurst's announcement that he would close has left some in the agency worried about the future of the small-business program. "It's a real concern," said Pat Potter, resource specialist and timber contracting officer on the Kootenai National Forest. "People are worried, and that's really the first time that's happened." The small-business set-aside program started in the mid-1970s, when the industry and the agency got together with the nation's Small Business Administration to guarantee that little guys had access to a slice of the timber pie....
Piecing together bear puzzle project involving bear hunters, antibiotics and barbed wire has provided revealing insights into one of the world's densest populations of black bears, on Kuiu Island in Southeast Alaska. Bear researcher Lily Peacock found that Kuiu Island, about 40 miles west of Petersburg, has three to five bears per square mile. Peacock also found that surprisingly high numbers of bears coexist seasonally on salmon streams on the island. She counted 115 different bears using a one-mile stretch of stream during a two-month period....
Lack of study funding keeps many of Montana's imperiled animals from being delisted Montana's grizzly bears and wolves are on the rise. Black-footed ferrets continue to struggle. They are among the 11 animals in the state listed as threatened or endangered in the federal Endangered Species Act. The act was created in 1973 to slow the gradual extinction of plants and animals. But its implementation is as much about politics as science. And 2005 is likely to see new attempts to change the act. Out in the field, however, biologists and others continue their work to document the various species and manage their habit. But even as the populations of some animals rebound and stabilize, lack of scientific review — more specifically, the money to fund it — hampers the ability to remove animals from the list....
Fighting upstream battle? In November, the Bush administration announced a near-reversal of the environmental policies that were instituted to rebuild salmon runs - the time the fish swim back upriver - in Washington, Oregon and northern California. In a much stricter interpretation of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, the administration announced that it will protect as "critical habitat" only rivers and streams currently occupied by salmon, not areas that were once, or might become, part of their habitat. The new interpretation reduces protected territory by 80 percent, federal officials say. The administration also has proposed to stop protecting land on the region's military bases and in federally owned forests. The decision is being challenged in court by environmental groups and will not become final before summer. The decision came within months of the administration's conclusion that the removal of dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers, which would have benefited salmon recovery, is no longer an option, and its decision to count hatchery-raised salmon as wild salmon when considering population....
Idaho outlaw set free after 22 years Claude Dallas, Idaho's most infamous outlaw, was released from prison Sunday morning after serving 22 years for the execution-style slayings of two state wildlife officers in 1981. Dallas, 54, gained notoriety as both a callous criminal and a modern-day mountain man at odds with the government. He was released Sunday after his 30-year term was cut by eight years for good behavior. Dallas was convicted of manslaughter in 1982 for the shooting deaths of Conley Elms and Bill Pogue, officers for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game who were investigating reports that Dallas was poaching bobcats in remote southwestern Idaho. The case made national headlines and turned Dallas into an anti-government folk hero for some, a reputation heightened by his 1986 jailbreak. Dallas hid for nearly a year before he was caught in Riverside, Calif. He was charged with escape but was acquitted by a jury after he testified he had to break out because prison guards threatened his life. Dallas has been the subject of a song, a television movie and at least two books....
GOP takes another stab at drilling in Alaska refuge For more than a decade, Republicans in Congress have been frustrated as first President Bill Clinton and then Senate Democrats blocked their efforts to allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. But after the November election, which added four new Republican senators -- and ousted several anti-drilling Democrats -- proponents are now bullish they will achieve their goal of opening what they say is America's largest untapped oil reserve. "This is probably our best shot at actually getting it through and to the president's desk," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, the Tracy Republican who has become the House's most vocal advocate for drilling in the refuge....
An Idyllic Scene Polluted With Controversy These rolling grasslands and foothills would seem a hiker's dream. The valleys are deep, the deer docile and the snowy mountain backdrop dazzling. "The wildlife is really abundant here," said Mark Sattelberg, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. "It's been pretty much undisturbed for 40 or 50 years." But critics say the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge site has been disturbed plenty. To them, the land is synonymous with government secrecy, widespread environmental violations and pollution from nuclear weapons production done here throughout the Cold War. They say the soil and water on the 6,000-acre refuge, scheduled to open in two years, remain contaminated and that recent tests found plutonium and uranium in deer living there. Federal officials said the levels were acceptable....
Column: Public may get sold down river But that's where this view of the Blue changes, where this place that BLM is pondering divestment of two key public-access tracts on a major trout stream becomes clouded in a bureaucratic haze comprised of suspicion and mistrust. Part of the suspicion arises from the fact that the proponent of the swap and owner of the ranch is Paul Tudor Jones, who amassed a large fortune as a Wall Street commodities trader and who already has established a track record of leveraging deals with BLM advantageous to his Blue Valley Ranch. The earlier exchange of similar property was completed in 1999, just in time for the ranch to start pressing for the current trade. This information proved one of the few useful tidbits gleaned from a telephone interview with Susan Cassel, realty specialist with the BLM district office in nearby Kremmling....
Committee backs fed-state land swap A major land exchange between the federal government and the state's School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration got the backing Friday of a legislative committee. The House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee unanimously approved a resolution supporting what would be an 88,000-acre trade between SITLA and the Bureau of Land Management, an agreement that has received preliminary approval from federal and state land managers. Under the proposal, SITLA would swap 48,000 acres of environmentally sensitive lands along the Colorado River and near Dinosaur National Monument in exchange for 40,000 acres of BLM holdings in the gas and oil-rich Uinta Basin. The federal agency also would throw in parcels in the city of Green River and a plot near the Moab Airport as part of the deal....
Landowners oppose proposal for ATV trail in Box Elder Owners of thousands of acres on the east slope of the Wasatch Range in Box Elder County are vowing to put a stop to all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts who they say have turned their land into a playground. Streambeds and pastures are now mud bogs, signs marking private property have been ripped out of the ground and ATV trails scar hillsides, several landowners said at a meeting here Thursday night. “The non-motorized people could use it and not abuse it,” said rancher Brett Selman, who with his parents, Fred and Laura Selman of Tremonton, owns 7,000 acres in the area south of Mantua. “It's the ATV people who are causing us grief.”....
Stewards of the land Virtually unheard of before 1970, the conservation easement has emerged in the past two decades as a white knight in the battle to save open space and agricultural land. According to the nonprofit Land Trust Alliance, nearly 2.6 million acres nationwide have been protected through easements held by local and regional land trusts, compared to just 450,000 acres in 1990. But what often is overlooked is the tremendous benefit that conservation easements can offer private landowners who want to keep their beloved land in the family and make sure it continues to be used as a retreat, a farm, or a ranch, rather than a golf course or a housing development....
State judge rules in favor of East Texas landowners A state district judge has ruled that hundreds of acres of East Texas land belong to their current owners, rejecting a claim that they were improperly surveyed and should be returned to the state. One of the defendants' lawyers said he hopes Friday's judgment will end the matter, initially one of the largest land disputes in modern Texas history. The case dates back to 2003, when the plaintiffs, rancher W.L. Dixon and former surveyor Barton McDonald, filed paperwork with the Texas General Land Office, alleging a 4,662-acre "vacancy" exists between Gilmer and Longview because of incorrect surveying. A vacancy is land that still belongs to the state, usually found in a gap between surveyed tracts. In a one-page ruling issued late Friday, Judge Paul Banner wrote that Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson's determination of "no vacancy" was correct. Banner wrote that he will likely issue more detailed findings this week....
Arid Arizona Points to Global Warming as Culprit Reese Woodling remembers the mornings when he would walk the grounds of his ranch and come back with his clothes soaked with dew, moisture that fostered enough grass to feed 500 cows and their calves. But by 1993, he says, the dew was disappearing around Cascabel -- his 2,700-acre ranch in the Malpai borderlands straddling New Mexico and Arizona -- and shrubs were taking over the grassland. Five years later Woodling had sold off half his cows, and by 2004 he abandoned the ranch. Dramatic weather changes in the West -- whether it is Arizona's decade-long drought or this winter's torrential rains in Southern California -- have pushed some former skeptics to reevaluate their views on climate change. A number of scientists, and some Westerners, are now convinced that global warming is the best explanation for the higher temperatures, rapid precipitation shifts, and accelerated blooming and breeding patterns that are changing the Southwest, one of the nation's most vulnerable ecosystems....
Green causes called out of step Leaders of the environmental movement were livid last fall when Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, two little-known, itinerant environmentalists in their 30s, presented a 12,000-word thesis arguing that environmentalism was dead. It did not help that the pair first distributed their paper, "The Death of Environmentalism," at the annual meeting of deep-pocketed foundation executives who underwrite the environmental establishment. But few outsiders paid much attention at first. Then came the November elections, into which groups such as the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters poured at least $15 million, much of it to defeat President Bush, whose support for oil drilling and logging and opposition to regulating greenhouse gases have made him anathema to environmental groups. Instead, Bush and congressional champions of his agenda cemented their control in Washington at a time when battles loom over clean air and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge....
Water bill takes aim at limiting state's recreational water rights One of the more contentious water bills to be considered by state lawmakers this session is aimed at limiting water rights claimed for recreation on Colorado's rivers and streams. Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, is trying to modify the 2001 Recreation In-Channel Diversion Act, which has led to a proliferation of kayak and canoeing courses throughout the state. He claims the water parks lack controls to ensure water is not being wasted, to the detriment of other water users in violation of Colorado water law. "What we're really trying to do here is protect existing water rights," Taylor said....
Saddle Up In Steamboat Mountain towns love to shake off the winter blues with an annual winter festival. Steamboat Springs hosts the oldest with their Winter Carnival, which begins Wednesday, Feb. 9 and lasts through the weekend, on the 13th. Winter Carnival started back in 1914, as a service to the community. A highlight of Winter Carnival is the street events. Dump trucks load up with tons of snow and fill up Lincoln Avenue, which is the main drag through town. On Saturday and Sunday, local ranchers bring their best horses down to pull the kids down the street. Kids can sign up to compete in ski joring, a street slalom, a donkey jump, and more, all while being pulled behind a horse. Adults can do it while sitting on a shovel....
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo chromosomes roam The rumble from stampeding bison used to shake the earth, as thousands of the majestic animals thundered across these parts centuries ago. That sound has faded almost entirely now, and the fate of one of the last pure herds in North America - begun by famed cattleman Charles Goodnight - rests with a trio of bulls donated by media tycoon and bison rancher Ted Turner. The Texas herd, once 250 strong, has dwindled to 53, and more than a century of inbreeding threatens its survival. The herd's average age has increased by three years - bison typically live between 12 to 15 years - and the number of calves has dropped in recent years. Nine were born last year. With Turner's bulls, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas A&M University's College of Veterinarian Medicine hope to strengthen the herd and preserve an animal that symbolizes the American West....
Museum serves up revisionist view of infamous outlaw's fate While most wild west museums and historians don't believe Brushy Bill Roberts' claim of being the real Billy the Kid is true, history professor Jannay Valdez has dedicated his Billy the Kid Outlaw Museum in Canton to proving Brushy is the notorious outlaw. Through the door of the "blood red" building on the south side of Interstate 20, a museum-goer can delve into the opposing history of Billy the Kid. "The museum tells the story of Billy the Kid who died in 1881 and Billy the Kid who died in 1950," Valdez said. As legend has it, Billy the Kid was Henry McCarty, born in New York City to Catherine Antrim. He moved to the West and became a cowboy and was known as William H. Bonney....
Museum celebrating 45th birthday: Remington, 'cowgirls' exhibits featured The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is celebrating its 45th birthday with two new exhibits and a lecture by a Western art authority this weekend. "The works of Frederic Remington, one of America's best-loved artists, is being paired up with a show focusing on some of the state's most notable cowgirls, including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor," museum director Royce Kardinal said. One of the highlights at Desert Caballeros is considered his last finished work - painted before his death at the age of 48 - which is sometimes referred to as The Cigarette. Consisting of 26 works on loan from the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, N.Y., the exhibition includes 10 pieces from the museum's permanent collection. The show will run through April 24. Complementing the blockbuster Remington show is a new exhibit, "Who Really Wore the Pants in the West: Arizona Cowgirls Now and Then." Highlights include photographs from O'Connor's girlhood on southeastern Arizona's Lazy B Ranch as well as the outfit of former Wickenburg dude ranch owner Vi Wellik, which she wore in the 1969 Tournament of Roses Parade. Sculpture and paintings by Kirkland rancher Cynthia Rigden dramatizes the artistic bent of many Arizona cowgirls....
Paintings look West Which came first, the legends of the Wild West or the art of Charles Russell and Frederic Remington? The impact of the drawings, paintings, prints and sculptures by these two artists is not underestimated in an exhibit that opens Tuesday at Louisville's Speed Art Museum. "Capturing Western Legends: Russell and Remington and the Canadian Frontier" is the first exhibit to explore their Canadian experiences. The dual exposure makes it clear that both men used much from their Canadian exposure to forge the notion of frontier that has informed everything from dime novels and Halloween costumes to John Wayne movies. Russell (1864-1926) and Remington (1861-1909) were contemporaries in time and interest in depicting the far North American West of the late 19th century. However, they met only late in each artist's life, when both were unvarnished successes after forging art careers that recorded and embroidered a vanishing lifestyle....
There's poetry in them thar cowboys - a lot of it The Mongolian herdsmen didn't ride into town this year, but the llaneros from Colombia did. That both would feel at home at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering proves there's nothing provincial about cowboy culture. And the gathering is as much about culture as poetry. One thing it isn't about is nostalgia. The cowboy tradition celebrated is a living one adaptable to change. "We're looking at a contemporary culture rooted in the past, but surviving over time," says Charlie Seemann, executive director of the Western Folklife Center, which hosts the event. "We're concerned primarily with what's [happening] on the land in the West today. The poetry and songs reflect people's lives and experiences working on the ranches now."....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Some things can't be taught by a book I think of the knowledge required when I send my son to the next ridge to check for cows on the other side. Although I've spent hours on end explaining things to him, words alone can't give him a feel for his horse, a sense of where to cross an arroyo, an ability to spot a cow amidst its mesquite camouflage, a caution of "snaky" places, and the increasing confidence that takes him further from me every day. He continues to increase his cowboy savvy with every ride, every gather and every branding. Every morning when he feeds the horses, the dogs, and the birds, he adds sediment to his sea of knowledge - knowledge accrued by hand....
Permalink 0 comments
Sunday, February 06, 2005
SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER
Cowboy talk, a language of its own
By Julie Carter
Cowboy lingo has always been my first language. I never thought to dissect, define or explain it. It always seemed pretty clear to me.
Recently a few questions from someone who seriously wanted to be correct in his terminology but claimed only Eastern savvy, sent me on a quest to learn why I knew what I knew.
Here in the southwest, just a few cow trails north of Mexico, we are quite familiar with the mixture of Spanish and English terms. I had just never seen them all in a list until last year when Robert Smead published a book called Vocabulario Vaquero, Cowboy Talk.
The book is a dictionary of sorts that shows the absorption of a large number of ranch-related words from Spanish into English. He contends it offers striking evidence of that heritage in the history of the American West and its cowboys.
Many of the essential cowboy items of tack originated in the Spanish culture. The bozal, usually written and said as bosal, is the nose band of a headstall or hackamore, which is from the Spanish term jáquima.
Cowboys still use and still say chaps. That is pronounced as “shaps” which stems from the original Spanish chaparreras, also pronounced with the “sh.” First guy you hear say chaps with the ch sound, see if he isn’t from New York City and check the origin of his salsa while you’re at it.
Corral, lariat, latigo, cinch and ten gallon hat all are words we throw around that have Spanish roots. Gallon in the hat doesn’t refer to capacity but to the braided decorations or galones that adorned it. What came first, tank or tanque? Both hold water.
A Spaniard by the name of Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca (that means head of a cow--poor Nuñez!) erroneously gave the Spanish term búfalo to the bison because it looked like the Indian or African wild ox. Erroneous or not, it stuck.
After the words themselves comes the peculiar direct phrases used by the cowboy who is almost always free from the constraints of polite society or convention. These are covered in two other books written by Ramon Adams called Cowboy Lingo and Western Words.
A cowboy’s slang usually strengthens rather that weakens his speech. The jargon of this individual among individuals is often picturesque, humorous and leaves you with no doubt how the man felt about the subject he was talking about.
He squeezes the juice from language, molds it to suit his needs and is a genius at making a verb out of anything. The words cowboy and rodeo are verbs and try is not. “He paid his fees knowing he better have enough try to cowboy up and rodeo like a tuff.”
There are phrases that cover situations such as when someone talks a lot with their hands. “He couldn’t say ‘hell’ with his hands tied.” When riding a horse with a rough gait that pounds even the best of riders you will hear, “That buzzard bait would give a woodpecker a headache.”
For a breed of mankind that has a reputation for being “men of few words,” the cowboy culture has their own entire dictionary of the west. It is filled with words from several nationalities, many occupations and all rolled into a “lingo” uniquely their own.
Now I guess I better go catch the old cow hocked, gotch eared, ring tailed cayuse, cinch up my kack and spend a little more daylight riding for the brand instead of for the grub line.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
I welcome items for Saturday Night at the Westerner. Submit them to the email in the left column where it says "email me".
Permalink 0 comments
Cowboy talk, a language of its own
By Julie Carter
Cowboy lingo has always been my first language. I never thought to dissect, define or explain it. It always seemed pretty clear to me.
Recently a few questions from someone who seriously wanted to be correct in his terminology but claimed only Eastern savvy, sent me on a quest to learn why I knew what I knew.
Here in the southwest, just a few cow trails north of Mexico, we are quite familiar with the mixture of Spanish and English terms. I had just never seen them all in a list until last year when Robert Smead published a book called Vocabulario Vaquero, Cowboy Talk.
The book is a dictionary of sorts that shows the absorption of a large number of ranch-related words from Spanish into English. He contends it offers striking evidence of that heritage in the history of the American West and its cowboys.
Many of the essential cowboy items of tack originated in the Spanish culture. The bozal, usually written and said as bosal, is the nose band of a headstall or hackamore, which is from the Spanish term jáquima.
Cowboys still use and still say chaps. That is pronounced as “shaps” which stems from the original Spanish chaparreras, also pronounced with the “sh.” First guy you hear say chaps with the ch sound, see if he isn’t from New York City and check the origin of his salsa while you’re at it.
Corral, lariat, latigo, cinch and ten gallon hat all are words we throw around that have Spanish roots. Gallon in the hat doesn’t refer to capacity but to the braided decorations or galones that adorned it. What came first, tank or tanque? Both hold water.
A Spaniard by the name of Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca (that means head of a cow--poor Nuñez!) erroneously gave the Spanish term búfalo to the bison because it looked like the Indian or African wild ox. Erroneous or not, it stuck.
After the words themselves comes the peculiar direct phrases used by the cowboy who is almost always free from the constraints of polite society or convention. These are covered in two other books written by Ramon Adams called Cowboy Lingo and Western Words.
A cowboy’s slang usually strengthens rather that weakens his speech. The jargon of this individual among individuals is often picturesque, humorous and leaves you with no doubt how the man felt about the subject he was talking about.
He squeezes the juice from language, molds it to suit his needs and is a genius at making a verb out of anything. The words cowboy and rodeo are verbs and try is not. “He paid his fees knowing he better have enough try to cowboy up and rodeo like a tuff.”
There are phrases that cover situations such as when someone talks a lot with their hands. “He couldn’t say ‘hell’ with his hands tied.” When riding a horse with a rough gait that pounds even the best of riders you will hear, “That buzzard bait would give a woodpecker a headache.”
For a breed of mankind that has a reputation for being “men of few words,” the cowboy culture has their own entire dictionary of the west. It is filled with words from several nationalities, many occupations and all rolled into a “lingo” uniquely their own.
Now I guess I better go catch the old cow hocked, gotch eared, ring tailed cayuse, cinch up my kack and spend a little more daylight riding for the brand instead of for the grub line.
Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net
© Julie Carter 2005
I welcome items for Saturday Night at the Westerner. Submit them to the email in the left column where it says "email me".
Permalink 0 comments
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Scientists and Generals - Jim Beers
According to a top manager of the Sierra Club, since “Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000,” and President Bush has now, “won outright, with a clear but narrow majority”; “we can expect efforts to limit the Endangered Species Act and to undo the National Environmental Policy Act”. Even scarier (to them) is the prediction that, “Science will continue to take a backseat to politics”. How many times in the past few years have we heard that “scientists say”, “scientists predict”, “science requires”, “scientists demand”, “the science needs more peer review”, “scientific studies indicate”, and “more science is needed”? One US Fish and Wildlife Service employee recently quit because “politics were dictating the science”. “Science” is used to justify everything from the harmful effects of unmanaged wolves and mountain lions to the Kyoto Treaty that would greatly harm the United States and the “need” for a UN Treaty on Native Ecosystems as a goal of national governments. Such justifications are the basis for laws and Treaties that diminish US private property rights, US States’ Rights, rural lifestyles, and the management and use of natural resources. From these things flows the growth of the US Federal government and it’s expanding hegemony over State and local governments in every aspect of American life. The Sierra Club is certainly not alone in it’s angst over a slowdown in Federal growth or it’s fear of recently passed laws being undone. All of the environmental organizations from The Wilderness Society and The Nature Conservancy to the Audubon Society and Ducks Unlimited have profited from tax breaks, grants, subsidies, and powerful laws that allow the Federal government to “take” property without compensation as well as their premiere role as Federal “partners” in all manner of Federal schemes....
Permalink 0 comments
Scientists and Generals - Jim Beers
According to a top manager of the Sierra Club, since “Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000,” and President Bush has now, “won outright, with a clear but narrow majority”; “we can expect efforts to limit the Endangered Species Act and to undo the National Environmental Policy Act”. Even scarier (to them) is the prediction that, “Science will continue to take a backseat to politics”. How many times in the past few years have we heard that “scientists say”, “scientists predict”, “science requires”, “scientists demand”, “the science needs more peer review”, “scientific studies indicate”, and “more science is needed”? One US Fish and Wildlife Service employee recently quit because “politics were dictating the science”. “Science” is used to justify everything from the harmful effects of unmanaged wolves and mountain lions to the Kyoto Treaty that would greatly harm the United States and the “need” for a UN Treaty on Native Ecosystems as a goal of national governments. Such justifications are the basis for laws and Treaties that diminish US private property rights, US States’ Rights, rural lifestyles, and the management and use of natural resources. From these things flows the growth of the US Federal government and it’s expanding hegemony over State and local governments in every aspect of American life. The Sierra Club is certainly not alone in it’s angst over a slowdown in Federal growth or it’s fear of recently passed laws being undone. All of the environmental organizations from The Wilderness Society and The Nature Conservancy to the Audubon Society and Ducks Unlimited have profited from tax breaks, grants, subsidies, and powerful laws that allow the Federal government to “take” property without compensation as well as their premiere role as Federal “partners” in all manner of Federal schemes....
Permalink 0 comments
OPINION/COMMENTARY
DEATH BY RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM
The recent tsunami devastation is dwarfed by a long-term problem that developing countries must fight: pestilence. But the most effective life-saving remedies for diseases such as cholera and malaria are opposed by environmental groups, says Michael Fumento of the Hudson Institute.
According to Fumento:
* Contaminated water can carry more than 50 diseases, including cholera, one of the biggest killers; yet chlorine, opposed by environmental groups, is most effective at killing the disease-causing organisms.
* Malaria, carried by mosquitoes, puts 40 percent of the world’s population at risk; but the most effective mosquito killer, the pesticide DDT, is demonized based on questionable accusations about its impact on the environment.
* Typhus, spread by fleas and lice, can also be prevented with a dusting of DDT on individuals; it was first used as a preventive measure on war refugees in 1943.
On the up side, the World Health Organization confirms that there is no evidence that corpses spread diseases to tsunami survivors (except if cholera was the cause of death).
Author Paul Driessen, a former member of the Sierra Club, says that, “We need to ignore the environmentalists and concentrate on immediate health dangers.”
Source: Michael Fumento, “Lives Left to Save,” National Review Online, January 3, 2005.
For text:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/fumento200501030730.asp
Permalink 0 comments
DEATH BY RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM
The recent tsunami devastation is dwarfed by a long-term problem that developing countries must fight: pestilence. But the most effective life-saving remedies for diseases such as cholera and malaria are opposed by environmental groups, says Michael Fumento of the Hudson Institute.
According to Fumento:
* Contaminated water can carry more than 50 diseases, including cholera, one of the biggest killers; yet chlorine, opposed by environmental groups, is most effective at killing the disease-causing organisms.
* Malaria, carried by mosquitoes, puts 40 percent of the world’s population at risk; but the most effective mosquito killer, the pesticide DDT, is demonized based on questionable accusations about its impact on the environment.
* Typhus, spread by fleas and lice, can also be prevented with a dusting of DDT on individuals; it was first used as a preventive measure on war refugees in 1943.
On the up side, the World Health Organization confirms that there is no evidence that corpses spread diseases to tsunami survivors (except if cholera was the cause of death).
Author Paul Driessen, a former member of the Sierra Club, says that, “We need to ignore the environmentalists and concentrate on immediate health dangers.”
Source: Michael Fumento, “Lives Left to Save,” National Review Online, January 3, 2005.
For text:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/fumento200501030730.asp
Permalink 0 comments
OPINION/COMMENTARY
The Frankenfood Myth
Do the words "genetically modified," "GMO," or "bioengineered" evoke images of Greenpeace demonstrators pushing props of monstrous tomatoes and corn with teeth? Perhaps they bring to mind packages in the health food aisle or Eurocrats in Brussels, both righteously advertising freedom from this technological taint? These implicit claims, the result of a concerted publicity effort by regulators, activists, and even major agribusinesses, flatly contradict a vast body of scientific evidence. Henry I. Miller of Stanford's Hoover Institution and Gregory Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute make the case that foods modified by recombinant DNA splicing present no new or special dangers, but in fact may improve the lives of countless millions worldwide. The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution is a sound defense of this technology and a relentless, detailed critique of the antiscientific alliance that seeks to defeat it....
Permalink 0 comments
The Frankenfood Myth
Do the words "genetically modified," "GMO," or "bioengineered" evoke images of Greenpeace demonstrators pushing props of monstrous tomatoes and corn with teeth? Perhaps they bring to mind packages in the health food aisle or Eurocrats in Brussels, both righteously advertising freedom from this technological taint? These implicit claims, the result of a concerted publicity effort by regulators, activists, and even major agribusinesses, flatly contradict a vast body of scientific evidence. Henry I. Miller of Stanford's Hoover Institution and Gregory Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute make the case that foods modified by recombinant DNA splicing present no new or special dangers, but in fact may improve the lives of countless millions worldwide. The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution is a sound defense of this technology and a relentless, detailed critique of the antiscientific alliance that seeks to defeat it....
Permalink 0 comments
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Crazy Like A Rabid Fox
Need a new wallet? Reuters reports that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) President Ingrid Newkirk is set to auction off a "waterproof and weathered" patch of her own tattooed skin on eBay. It seems that her hide is "suitable for making into a wallet or watch strap." Newkirk has declared that humans are "the biggest blight on the face of the earth." Now it would seem she is out to prove it. The winning bidder will have to wait for Newkirk to die before taking delivery. Nonetheless, her zealous followers are now set to parcel up her body into relics like that of a revered saint. A small patch of Newkirk's skin isn't the only body part for which she has post-mortem plans....
Permalink 0 comments
Crazy Like A Rabid Fox
Need a new wallet? Reuters reports that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) President Ingrid Newkirk is set to auction off a "waterproof and weathered" patch of her own tattooed skin on eBay. It seems that her hide is "suitable for making into a wallet or watch strap." Newkirk has declared that humans are "the biggest blight on the face of the earth." Now it would seem she is out to prove it. The winning bidder will have to wait for Newkirk to die before taking delivery. Nonetheless, her zealous followers are now set to parcel up her body into relics like that of a revered saint. A small patch of Newkirk's skin isn't the only body part for which she has post-mortem plans....
Permalink 0 comments
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Al Sharpton Joins PETA Campaign
Al Sharpton Joins PETA Campaign People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has enlisted the help of Rev. Al Sharpton in its long campaign against KFC. Sharpton, reports this morning's New York Times, has made an 8-minute video for PETA telling African Americans not to "give our money to KFC." Sharpton joins the distinguished ranks of PETA spokespersons including Pamela Anderson, Anna Nicole Smith, and Dennis "The Worm" Rodman. Who's next? Tonya Harding?....
Permalink 0 comments
Al Sharpton Joins PETA Campaign
Al Sharpton Joins PETA Campaign People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has enlisted the help of Rev. Al Sharpton in its long campaign against KFC. Sharpton, reports this morning's New York Times, has made an 8-minute video for PETA telling African Americans not to "give our money to KFC." Sharpton joins the distinguished ranks of PETA spokespersons including Pamela Anderson, Anna Nicole Smith, and Dennis "The Worm" Rodman. Who's next? Tonya Harding?....
Permalink 0 comments
