NEWS ROUNDUP

Forest Service proposed dramatic grazing cuts in Sawtooth The Forest Service wants to reduce grazing by more than a third on two allotments east of the White Cloud Mountains in the Sawtooth National Forest. The management change is for the Upper East Fork and Lower East Fork allotments along the East Fork of the Salmon River. It would ban grazing on 33,500 acres until vegetation improves. It also would require fences to keep cattle out of some areas used by people for recreation... Grand jury indicts two in theft of petroglyphs near Reno A federal grand jury indicted two men on felony charges Wednesday for allegedly damaging and stealing rocks with American Indian petroglyphs from a national forest bordering Reno... Construction Equipment Vandalized, Possibly By Radical Environmental Group Construction equipment used for a rehabilitation project in the Jemez Mountains has been vandalized. U.S. Forest Service officials say someone cut electrical wires and broke a window on a backhoe and slashed tires on a water trailer. Officials say both vehicles had the initials ELF scratched onto them...Guest opinion: Election cycle at odds with forest cycle This year, the Bush administration's so-called "Healthy Forest Initiative" (H.R.1904, known in the Senate as the "Senate Logging Bill"), was a document born of the times, one which only aggravates a credibility gap that it would seem this administration would be attempting to close. The Healthy Forest Initiative is most dangerous and untruthful on two major points: First, it focuses on increasing logging of the national forests in the remote backcountry, far from the human communities supposedly at risk. The Forest Service's own studies show that fire prevention is most effective within 200 feet of a dwelling; beyond that, proposing to stop a fire by logging a certain grove carries the same odds as finding a needle in a haystack... Forest Service struggles to battle beetles The Dillon Ranger District is desperately hoping it will receive the funds necessary to halt the explosion of the mountain pine beetle population. The pest has killed hundreds of trees in and around the Dillon Reservoir-area campgrounds, and rangers expect the problem to multiply if they don't take significant action quickly...Yellowstone wolf expert honored by Park Service The head of the park's wolf project was honored Wednesday night for his work with wolves since they were reintroduced here in 1995. Doug Smith has received awards from both the regional and national directors of the National Park Service...35 greatest threats to fishing Like those of us born in the baby boom generation, fishing has aged. We can see its vulnerabilities, even as we assess our own. But unlike us, fishing can endure. If we protect that which we profess to love so much, and if we pass that stewardship on to our children and our children's children, fishing will enrich lives for centuries to come...Migratory Bird Loses Some Protection The double-crested cormorant is losing some federal protection. The Fish and Wildlife Service issued a rule Wednesday allowing state wildlife agencies in 24 states, mostly in the Midwest and South, to control cormorant populations without first getting a federal permit, as is required now. Population control measures could include killing the birds or taking steps to prevent their eggs from hatching, said Nicholas Throckmorton, a spokesman for the federal agency...BLM's plan to open dunes delayed for another season The Bureau of Land Management's plan to open parts of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation area to off-road vehicles has been delayed for another season, according to environmental groups fighting to keep the area closed. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ruled this week that nothing can change at the dunes until the court has had a chance to review a new biological opinion being prepared about the potential impacts to the Pierson's milk-vetch, a rare plant found in the dunes...Column: Off-road, off-limits Off-road vehicle and SUV manufacturers understand this phenomenon, and their advertising reflects it. The typical commercial shows the vehicle-owner as conqueror. Powerful machines plow through muddy streams and race up steep hillsides to subdue the highest point in the wilderness. Advertisers are selling the ability to get to places that people with lesser vehicles can't. An implicit (but not so subtle) message is that if you buy their vehicle, then you are the one who gets to deflower the last bit of virgin landscape, away from the unwashed masses...Wranglers, researchers conduct annual Bison Range roundup "Prairie music," Bill West said. The bison snorted, grunted and groaned a few feet away, unnerved by the arrival of the wranglers. Calves crowded close to their mothers. The biggest, oldest bulls turned to face the riders. The cowboys smiled. "These are the best days of the year," said West, assistant manager of the National Bison Range and a cowboy for the range's annual roundup...Tribal control of National Bison Range unlikely The U.S. government will not turn over management of the National Bison Range to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the government's lead negotiator said Tuesday. Rick Coleman, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regional refuge chief, said the service has identified "functions and activities" that could be performed by the tribe "in cooperation with the refuge system." But management of the 18,799-acre refuge will remain with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Coleman said during the Bison Range's annual roundup - where he was a first-time visitor... Animal Protection Groups Question Federal Plan to Kill Millions of Canada Geese The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) joined today with the Fund for Animals on behalf of more than eight million members and constituents nationwide to question plans recently announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that call for killing between 400,000 and 800,000 "resident" Canada geese and their goslings each year for the next ten years...Domenici Wants Water-Law Changes Just a few more court decisions like the one this summer that said New Mexico's imported water supply might be tapped for the silvery minnow, and Congress could scrap the Endangered Species Act as we know it, New Mexico's senior U.S. senator says. Republican Pete Domenici is spearheading legislation to block a federal appeals-court ruling this summer that said water from the federal San Juan/Chama diversion project could be taken to sustain the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow. The project carries water from Colorado into New Mexico, and cities including Santa Fe and Albuquerque are counting on the water for present needs and future growth. "A few more rotten decisions, and the Endangered Species Act won't be fixed the way I'm fixing it," Domenici said. "It will finally get modified. It is hanging on by its teeth. It will get modified just to flat be practical, so that you don't do things like this."...BLM head says she wants Congress to designate N.M. wilderness The head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says Congress should act on an aging report that could decide the fate of proposed New Mexico wilderness. Kathleen Clarke says the BLM has identified nearly 10 million acres across the West that should be protected as wilderness. She says chunks of wilderness from that report have been approved, but the entire list has not been addressed. She says the land that has not been approved by Congress is being managed as wilderness pending a decision...Ag Groups Rally Congress to Prevent Buyout of Grazing Leases Members of the House of Representatives are being asked to oppose efforts to introduce legislation which would authorize a "buyout" of grazing permits on federal lands. A letter signed by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), the Public Lands Council (PLC) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) was sent to every house member late yesterday urging support for "continued multiple use of public lands and opposition to federal grazing permit buy-out legislation." The buyout program would allow a federal grazing permittee to "sell" their permit back to the federal government. The associated grazing allotment would then be permanently retired from domestic livestock grazing use. Costs for the buyout program have been estimated at $3.3 billion, and the measure is reportedly being proposed by Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.)... Proposal to open 30,000 acres of public land awaits state OK Hunters could have access to 30,000 acres of public land in southeast Montana by next fall, much to the displeasure of some area ranchers. The Bureau of Land Management, in cooperation with the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, has proposed an easement across state land to allow vehicle access to BLM holdings. Currently, the only way for the public to reach the BLM land is by foot...Japan quarantines cattle after 8th mad cow disease discovery Japan has quarantined 604 cows to prevent the spread of mad cow disease after authorities confirmed that a 23-month-old bull had a new strain of the bovine illness, an official said Wednesday. The bull, which tested positive for the disease on Sept. 29, was the youngest animal to be found here with the fatal brain-wasting disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. The other infected cattle, the most recent case in January, were five years old. Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said Tuesday that follow-up tests by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases revealed a possible new strain of the disease. Within hours, officials in northern Ibaraki prefecture, where the cow had been screened before it was to be slaughtered, incinerated the animal. The case showed heightened resistance to certain enzymes, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Officials were considering giving more vaccinations to cattle and possibly adjusting them to fight the new strain, it said... Latest BSE case no cause for panic (Japan) The experts say they found abnormal prions--the protein molecules believed to cause the disease--in the infected bull. The prions differed not only from the previous seven Japanese cases, but also from those found overseas. One difference was discovered in a test used to determine the existence of substances from the size of their molecules. Morikazu Shinagawa, head of the expert group, pointed out, "The structure of a sugar chain that makes up a part of the protein is different." Also, previously identified prions are highly resistant to splitting by enzymes. But the newly discovered abnormal prions can be readily dissolved by enzymes. The new prions also failed to conform with the results expected in the government's standard tests for BSE. A test on the cow's brain did not find spongelike holes or an accumulation of abnormal prions. The cow did not show signs of a loss of balance while walking, unlike all previous BSE cows... Tests confirm Saskatchewan cow sparked crisis A diseased cow that sparked a national mad cow crisis costing the cattle industry billions of dollars was born in Saskatchewan, a federal veterinarian has confirmed. "We went back and did further DNA extraction so we got a better quality of DNA," Dr. George Luterbach of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said today. "We were able to confirm an offspring of the positive cow and through records we cross-referenced that calf to its mother. About 2,700 animals which might have been associated with the infected cow were slaughtered in herds across Alberta and Saskatchewan last spring. Agriculture officials believed the animal was born on a farm owned by Mel and Betty Ann McCrae near Baldwinton, Sask., but could not prove it even after the tests... Mad cow leads 25 RMs to declare economic disaster About 25 Saskatchewan rural municipalities have declared an economic disaster due to the fallout from mad cow disease, grasshoppers and a summer heat wave. And some 125 other rural municipalities Canadawide have made the same announcement, deepening concern that piles of property tax notices will go unpaid and services will suffer, rural leaders said Tuesday...USDA Sends Rules for Live Canadian Cattle Imports to OMB The U.S. Department of Agriculture has finished writing up a proposal that seeks to eventually allow some Canadian live cattle into the U.S. and it is now being reviewed by the White House's Office of Management and Budget, according to U.S. government and industry sources. "I know it's out of (USDA) and its over (at OMB)," said a U.S. government official, who asked not to be named. "I know that as soon as it comes back, we'll publish it, but it's not back yet." OMB, which lists the USDA proposed regulation on its Web site as docket No. 03-080-1, says it was submitted for review on Oct. 1. An OMB official said traditionally it has 90 days to review proposed new regulations, but stressed the agency "likes to review rules as quickly as we can."... USDA Seeks Info On Japan BSE Case The USDA said on Monday that it was seeking more details about a new case of mad cow disease (BSE) in Japan that could impact plans to reopen U.S. borders to shipments of live Canadian cattle under 30 months of age. Japanese officials earlier confirmed the case of mad cow disease, the eighth in that country since the illness was first discovered there in September 2001. The twist is that this case is apparently a new strain of the disease and was found in a 23-month-old cow, raising new questions about what cattle may be considered safe... Montana Ag director urges trade changes Canada must remove trade barriers before the United States reopens its borders to live cattle exports, Montana's agriculture chief said Tuesday. Peck, who co-chairs a U.S.-Canada Working Group focusing on such issues, believes that federal officials must insist on equal treatment of U.S. producers to gain access to cattle, sheep and hog markets in Canada before the border is reopened to live cattle shipments... Royalty owners may receive millions A 6th Judicial District Court judge has ruled that BP can't deduct the cost of bringing natural gas to marketable condition from the royalties it pays some 4,000 lessors in La Plata and Archuleta counties. An attorney for the royalty owners estimated the ruling could mean hundreds of millions of dollars owed to lessors, but actual damages will be determined at a later hearing. Monday's ruling by Judge David Dickinson would affect the payments on the production of 600 gas wells since June 1, 1991... County cattle branding in the spotlight A new exhibit called "Cattle Branding: A Rancher's Signature" will open Thursday at the Merced County Courthouse Museum. The theme of the exhibit is that each brand tells its own story. When they come together, they present a pictorial history of cattle ranching in Merced County from the Miller & Lux cattle enterprise on the Westside to Crocker-Huffman's cattle operation in Eastern Merced County... Scottsdale ranch offers boot camp for cowboys Arizona Cowboy College was founded in 1989 by New Mexico native Lloyd Bridwell. He and his wife, Lori, had opened the equestrian center 20 years earlier. For almost a dozen years, the easygoing Lloyd served as head instructor, turning greenhorns into wranglers with two days instruction in town and four days on the trail... Western Drought (PBR Transcript) TED ROBBINS: For John Whitney, the current drought has been devastating. It helped force him out of the ranching business. JOHN WHITNEY: In 2000, we had to remove all because of the drought. TED ROBBINS: Whitney is in a former pasture, one of the few green areas on his 150,000-acre grazing lot. JOHN WHITNEY: The first year we took the cattle off, it was tough. But now... I still get emotional about it. TED ROBBINS: Much of the West is in the sixth consecutive year of drought. This map shows how bad it was this year. Snow pack and stream runoff in the red areas were 30-70 percent below normal. The drought has contributed to devastating forest fires, increased ground water consumption, and agricultural failure. Water levels in large storage reservoirs along the Colorado River, Lake Powell, and Lake Mead are down record levels... A two-lamb wagon With the lambs in tow, Gertrude and Mildred walked some distance away, then turned about so they were facing the barn at the end of the lane. Millie sat in the wagon, holding the lambs’ lead-ropes while Gertrude put her homemade harness on the pair. To get them going, Gertie whooped. The lambs took off hell-bent for election. Gertrude had planned to leap aboard the wagon behind Millie, but she missed, so she grabbed the tailgate and, like the stunt guy in an old Western movie, she ate dirt while being dragged...

NEWS ROUNDUP

Grazing to be curtailed in East Fork drainage The Sawtooth National Recreation Area is scheduled today to release a long-awaited environmental study and related management decisions on cattle grazing in the East Fork of the Salmon River valley on the eastern slope of the White Cloud mountains. The decision appears to reach a compromise position between proposed curtailment of grazing in the area and the status quo, which was deemed to be damaging to natural resources and recreation opportunities. In March, the U.S. Forest Service released a draft of the Upper and Lower East Fork Cattle and Horse Allotment Management Plans that proposed to reduce in half the size and scope of two grazing allotments used by seven Custer County ranchers...Bear Expert and Companion Killed in Bear Attack at Alaska Park A self-taught bear expert who once called Alaska's brown bears harmless was one of two people fatally mauled in a bear attack in the Katmai National Park and Preserve. The bodies of Timothy Treadwell, 46, and Amie Huguenard, 37, both of Malibu, Calif., were found Monday at their campsite when a pilot arrived who was supposed to take them to Kodiak, state troopers said Tuesday. Treadwell, co-author of "Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska," spent more than a dozen summers living alone with and videotaping Katmai bears. Information on Huguenard was not immediately Available. The Andrew Airways pilot contacted troopers in Kodiak and the National Park Service after he saw a brown bear, possibly on top of a body, at the camp near Kaflia Bay... Official: Burned timber no longer salvageable "Little to no" merchantable timber likely remains in several fire-salvage sales stopped by an environmental lawsuit earlier this year, a Kootenai National Forest official said. Another summer of heat and drought probably dealt the final blow to thousands of board feet of timber damaged by wildfires during the summer of 2000, said Tom Maffei, timber sale contracting officer for the Kootenai forest. Twelve of 16 active timber sales and six of 26 planned sales stopped by a court order last July were intended to salvage burned trees. Still, Maffei said language attached to the Interior Appropriations Bill by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., "would be helpful" in renewing work on the green timber sales and in completing restoration work in the burned areas... Editorial: Forest health may rely on fire prevention effort In a June study by the Northern Arizona University Forestry Department, "Analysis of Costs and Benefits of Restoration-Based Hazardous Fuel Reduction Treatments vs. No Treatment," G.B. Snider, D.B. Wood and P.J. Daugherty studied the conditions of forests in the early 1900s and compared them to current conditions. They compared the effects of wildfires then and now and determined that recent forest management practices have been a contributing cause to the out-of-control fires such as Rodeo-Chedeski in Arizona last year, which conservatively cost $300 million to suppress. This study says it would be more cost effective to spend $500 per acre to prevent forest fires rather than millions to suppress them once they've started. The authors summarize their findings by saying "each year that no action is taken to restore acres that are at highest risk for unnatural fire, the problem becomes worse. Fuels resulting from beetle outbreaks are contributing to the hazardous fuels build up." The actions that the authors recommend include drastic thinning of small-diameter timber and removal of dead and dying beetle- and drought-damaged trees... Mapping the Forest Disaster ESRI, the recognized world leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, is providing extraordinary support to our public safety officials who are striving to manage the effects of the drought and beetle infestation disaster in the San Bernardino Mountains. The company is also now providing free, detailed information to the public through a new Web portal...Forest officials forging ahead with marginal timber sale The Forest Service is moving ahead with a controversial timber sale south of here, even though it probably will lose money and irritate the neighbors while sawmills might not even want the logs. Since it was first proposed four years ago, its "purpose and need" was to provide cash so the Gallatin could buy land in the Taylor Fork drainage south of Big Sky from Big Sky Lumber Co. The "timber for land" provision in the BSL swaps was approved by Congress in 1998 and was a provision that Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., insisted upon. It called upon the Gallatin to sell $4.5 million worth of logs in several separate timber sales by the end of this year, or BSL would get land in the Bangtail Mountains northeast of Bozeman in exchange for its Taylor Fork land...Forest Service to use fire to improve game range A $7,000 grant from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will help the U.S. Forest Service get moving on a project designed to keep trees from taking over some important grasslands. The project calls for chopping down some small trees and lighting some controlled burns in meadows that elk and other wildlife rely on for winter forage. "We're trying to restore fire back into those areas," said Rachel Feigley, a biologist on the Gallatin National Forest's Livingston District... Saving a forest by cutting it The U.S. Forest Service is proposing cutting trees north of Vail to save a forest. This counter-intuitive approach is sure to become a controversial proposal for managing up to 10,000 acres of lodgepole pines north of Vail. The Forest Service contends that cutting a majority of the trees can actually improve lynx habitat and make the forest healthier and less prone to major wildfires. The approach is also being recommended by wildlife biologists and forest managers who are charged with making sure there is adequate habitat for the shy, tuft-eared feline and other animals... Native California plant taken off federal protection list A native California plant that has been federally protected for 13 years has recovered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday in removing it from the endangered species list. The decision to remove Hoover's woolly-star from a list of threatened species comes after the discovery of new populations in three counties, the service said...Summit unveils land-use proposal Summit County planning officials unveiled a revised land-use plan Monday night that includes a toolbox full of smart growth measures. The proposal includes a development cap and a transfer-of-rights program aimed at steering development away from the backcountry and toward areas with existing infrastructure. While limiting growth, the goal also is to preserve the rural character of certain areas: for example the upper Snake River Basin, around Montezuma, and the Lower Blue Valley, north of Silverthorne...In the Northwest: Gas drillers poised along Rocky Mountain Front R.L. "Stoney" Burk is a country lawyer who has practiced for 21 years in Choteau. A decorated former fighter pilot, Burk is conservative to the core in his suspicions of federal power and the exercise thereof from Ruby Ridge, Idaho, to Waco, Texas. When it comes to oil and gas leasing on "the Front," he sounds like John Muir. "They'll road it, contaminate it, leave it and step on our faces on their way out," Burk said. "They've done it again and again in Montana." Fighting words, but there is much to fight for...Methane company fined $20,000 The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has fined a coal-bed methane company $20,000 for unauthorized construction on federal land near the Powder River...BLM Sweetens Deal for Online Auction of Mustang Ranch It's not as easy to get rid of a brothel as you might think. The Bureau of Land Management has listed the Mustang Ranch on eBay for a second time. This time the agency is sweetening the deal. After the brothel failed to sell the first time around, officials add the naming rights and trademark "World Famous Mustang Ranch" to the package...Federal agency considers changes to NPR-A regulations The Bureau of Land Management is gathering public comment about proposed land-use plan changes that could allow more oil and gas development on a 4.6-million-acre portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The proposed changes for the northeast section of the reserve could make the requirements for development more flexible and better accommodate new production technology as it emerges, said Susan Childs, a BLM environmental program analyst...BLM separates roads from planning process for public lands As Utah's six Bureau of Land Management field offices develop plans for 9.9 million acres of public lands, the simple definition of what constitutes a road or trail promises to cause grief. That is why the agency's national office issued planning guidelines Monday that give field offices like those in Utah more time to complete route designations while they finish their resource management plans. Essentially, BLM will be able to produce the overall management plans before, and separate from, the road plans... Zuni Salt Lake threatened again The sanctity of the Zuni Salt Lake is again in jeopardy. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced earlier this month plans to possibly lease a part of a recently abandoned mine site to oil and gas development. The area, sacred to Zuni and other native people, had been under consideration as a coal mine by Salt River Project, an Arizona utility company...Bond referendum ignites water wars in Colorado It has pitted farmers against city folks, environmentalists against Front Range governments and conservative Republicans against the Republican governor. Although lawmakers intended a $2 billion bond referendum on Colorado's Nov. 4 ballot to find solutions for a record drought, it instead has ignited divisive water wars over how best to use and conserve the state's limited resource. Influential western Colorado politicians, lobbying groups and residents are concerned Referendum A will enable thirsty, populated areas in eastern Colorado to take their water with little regard for the region's future... Law of the lands Some people think Robert J. Miller, an Indian law scholar, specializes in an obscure area of legal academia. But the associate professor at Lewis & Clark Law School disagrees. Tribal sovereignty is quickly becoming one of the fundamental legal, economic and environmental questions of our time, said Miller, who is a member of the Eastern Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma... Legal battle centers on basin As 180 gallons of water gush from his well every minute, George Adam wonders how anyone can believe the Santa Maria Valley groundwater basin isn't full. Last year, Adam's family spent $48,000 for a tiling system to divert the water - which was flooding his 18-acre cauliflower field off Simas Road - to the nearby Solomon Slough and then to the ocean. Grower George Adam stands along a channel that cuts through a field leading water to the ocean. Adam says groundwater in the Santa Maria basin is plentiful and state water is not needed. Below, water pours out of an irrigation pipe into a channel that will eventually take the water to the ocean. He says rising water levels are a problem faced by many area farmers - and an indication that there is plenty of groundwater in the basin. Adam can cite charts and studies that bolster his claim. But then again, so can others who believe that groundwater demand has outstripped supply. Wednesday is the opening day of a trial in San Jose to determine just how much water is flowing in the valley's basin - and whether there is enough to go around... Another Bush Administration 'Leak' Says Group; Snowmobiles Leak Pollution into Yellowstone; Court to Decide Issue Before Winter Snowmobiles may be barred from nearly all of Yellowstone National Park this winter as a federal judge has announced that he will issue a ruling in the lawsuit filed by animal protection and environmental groups before the winter snowmobile season. The groups, suing to stop the White House's latest attack on the environment, have filed a legal brief illustrating how the Bush Administration has sold out Yellowstone to the snowmobile industry by allowing the use of polluting, noisy, and wildlife-harming machines despite its own studies that show exactly how harmful they are...Editorial: Congress, Bush must challenge Antiquities Act The problem is that the Antiquities Act consists of vague language. For example, there is no definition of what "historic" or "scientific" means in the act. It is left to each president to decide how he or she will define the term. To say that Clinton's use of the Antiquities Act caused some unrest would be a big understatement. We still feel the effects of his declaration today. While changing what already has been done might be difficult -- if not impossible -- there is room for improving the process to ensure such decisions aren't made by one person in the heat of a campaign, as it could be argued Clinton did to enhance presidential and congressional campaigns in the past. It's time for the president and Congress to pass another act that supersedes the Antiquities Act. The goal would not be to remove any chance of protecting public lands from development, but the process should have to be put through Congress... Some things technology won't helpGoing, going, gone. Our calves sold a week ago today on an Internet cattle auction. It's the latest technology to hit the cattle industry that once was as simple as a horse, a saddle and a man. None of it is so simple today. As I write, six semi-trucks sit ready to load as soon as the pasture is gathered and the calves are sorted and weighed. It's shipping day. It is part of the normal process of the cattle business. It is the once a year pay day for the rancher. This is where you very likely in today's economics of ranching, find out you worked all year for nothing... Balancing Cattle, Land and Ledgers Mr. Kahrle practices what is called sustainable ranching. By avoiding pesticides and relying more on range grass than feed grown with fertilizers, he says, he is helping to sustain the environment. By avoiding antibiotics and hormones, he is sustaining the quality of his beef. And by reducing his costs and becoming part of a network of distributors, retailers and chefs who care about what they are doing and are willing to pay for it, he is sustaining what is often an economically precarious way of life. "We use more of what nature gives us," Mr. Kahrle said. "It makes sense on every level." Mr. Kahrle is part of a small, growing group of ranchers and business owners who say the meat industry has cut so many corners for the sake of profit that the environment and the quality of beef have been compromised and small ranchers have been driven out of business. With recent outbreaks of disease, like mad cow in Canada, and a larger trend toward organic and humane treatment of animals, those out West in big hat country feel the time is ripe to market beef with a known history...Idaho cattle may open export market for Northwest An Idaho rancher who recently delivered nearly 800 cattle to a ship in The Dalles bound for South Korea may have helped open a national export market for ranchers in the Pacific Northwest. If the ship docks in the South Korean cities of Inchon and Busanin with healthy steers, the cattle fatten up to provide nicely marbled meat, and the export costs prove to be reasonable, the success could launch a $40 million annual market of exports from Oregon to South Korea...FISHING FOR HORSES But Jason Mercurio is the scion of a Monterey Bay commercial fishing family, grew up in Monterey and literally won his spurs as a cowboy and wrangler, competing against longtime ranching families at the Carmel Valley Ranchers Days held each year at the end of September. Mercurio, 23, took the Old Style Roping championship this year on the last day of Ranchers Days at the Carmel Valley Trail and Saddle Club, throwing a flawless figure-eight loop -- a California vaquero technique that allows a riata to catch a cow by both neck and forelegs -- while riding with partner Mollie Dorrance of Salinas...Last look at Happy Trails before move After forging happy trails in the High Desert for 35 years, family members of Western film icons Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are packin' up and movin' out. The Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Museum, which has fallen on hard times since the deaths of its namesake stars, is relocating to Branson, Mo., where country-western reigns supreme...

NEWS ROUNDUP

Tribes set to release forest plan The Klamath Tribes are nearing completion of a forest management plan for former reservation lands they hope to reacquire, according to the tribes' most recent newsletter. The plan will be a key piece of negotiations with the U.S. government to restore lands to the Tribes, according to the September issue of the "Klamath News," the monthly tribal newsletter. For about two decades, the Tribes have been trying to get land back from the U.S. government. The Tribes' reservation, which had about a million acres, was abolished when the Tribes were terminated in 1954. The Tribes regained federal recognition in 1986. The Tribes now hope to gain ownership of about 660,000 acres of former reservation land now owned by the U.S. Forest Service...Voting booths set up at firefighting scene Firefighters have contained a 6,050-acre blaze in the Mendocino National Forest, and some celebrated Sunday by getting involved in another California firestorm -- the recall vote. Firefighters fulfilled their civic duty Sunday in voting booths that the Glenn County Elections Office set up at the fire camp. As many as 800 firefighters are still fighting the fire, which could take weeks or months to completely control, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Rebeca Franco said. Those who voted Sunday will have their ballots delivered to their home counties... Editorial: Wyden timber plan follows natural path Smokey Bear was wrong. So are many of his detractors. For generations, misguided forest officials attacked wildfires as soon as they started. Fire is a natural part of the forest cycle. By curbing smaller fires that removed shrubs and other fuels, humans opened the forests to the catastrophic blazes that we have witnessed in Southern Oregon and elsewhere. The answer is not to walk away from firefighting or from reforesting. It is to work in concert with nature -- carefully thinning fire-prone lands, swiftly assessing and restoring burned areas, protecting homes in and near forests and preserving old growth. Legislation guided by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon would lead America's Forest Service managers down that reasonable path. But it won't succeed unless the timber and environmental communities quit sniping at and distrusting each other... Environmentalists balk at plan for Idaho's old-growth timber An Idaho Department of Lands plan to increase old-growth timber harvests in northern Idaho has stunned conservation groups that already had threatened to sue the state for what they say was overcutting. Department Director Winston Wiggins said the proposed increase is driven by the growing preference among northern Idaho's lumber mills for smaller logs. Soon, he said, the mills will have no demand for larger trees... Editorial: Fining the feds The Utah Division of Air Quality is considering what to do about the recent Cascade Springs fire, which got away from the U.S. Forest Service officials who started it, spread over 8,000 acres and caused health warnings and difficult breathing in the Salt Lake and Utah valleys late last month. One option is to fine Uncle Sam up to $10,000 a day for violating the conditions of its controlled burn permit. It could be worth it... Nevada Rancher Sues Federal Government for 30 Million in Takings Suit (Longer Story) Colvin is following the litigation strategy set forth in the similar and successful case of his neighbor, Wayne Hage. Hage filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in 1991 after years of attempts by the U.S. Forest Service and BLM to reclassify his rangelands as "public lands" and convert it to other uses. In the January 29, 2002 Final Decision and Finding of Fact, the Court ruled that Hage had "title to the fee lands", an area of land identified as his grazing allotment. The Court will determine the compensation owed Hage for the government taking of his property in a trial set for May 2004. "The Hage decision is important to hundreds of western ranchers who have been subjected to years government harassment and interference with their ranching operations. Nothing has changed for many ranchers under the Bush Administration. Clinton bureaucrats are still largely in control. But we now have a victory in Hage that provides other ranchers with a road-map showing them how to keep the government honest when they take our property," said Wayne Hage from his ranch in Monitor Valley, Nevada...Elite units take on arduous wildfire duties Matt Hennessy is happiest scaling a hillside, a saw in his hand, while flames lick close enough to singe his hair and smoke obscures anything more than 5 feet away. "I love it, it's a rush," said Hennessy, 23, of Riverside. "The whole side of the mountain is ripping and you're there to do your work." Hennessy isn't crazy. He's a hotshot... Conservationist backtracks on wolf remarks Lambasted by his fellow conservationists for remarks he made at a law conference in Missoula last week, National Wildlife Federation attorney Tom France issued a written statement Monday chiding the federal government for failing to recover the gray wolf "on suitable habitat across a significant portion of its historic range." "Removing Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the West is clearly premature," France said in a statement issued by the Wildlife Federation's Washington, D.C., office. However, the group's national communications director said France's comments at last week's Public Land and Resources Law Conference in Missoula caused "some difficulties" and were contrary to the federation's national wolf policy...For the original story with the comments, go here....U.S. inquiry targets Bush's $120 million oil rights buyout in Glades The investigative arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior has begun an inquiry into the Bush administration's $120 million buyout of oil rights in the western Everglades. The deal was intended to thwart a massive oil-drilling plan by the Collier family of southwest Florida, which held the mineral rights at Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. When the buyout was announced last year at a White House news conference, environmentalists gave the administration a rare round of applause in a crucial state for the 2004 election. But now the Interior Department's Inspector General's Office has begun reviewing the transaction. The Inspector General's Office would not comment. But Hugh Vickery, spokesman for the Interior Department, said the inquiry focused on how the administration arrived at the $120 million price...Agreement in Maine Will Remove Dams for Salmon's Sake But on Monday an unusual agreement was announced between a coalition of environmentalists and the power company that operates dams on Maine's largest river, an agreement many environmentalists believe stands a good chance of saving the struggling salmon, along with a dozen other species of faltering fish. Under the agreement, two dams on the sprawling Penobscot River are to be torn down, removing important barriers to salmon returning from the ocean to the river to spawn. A third dam will be decommissioned, and a bypass will be built around the structure so the salmon can pass. In exchange, the environmental coalition will pay the power company, the PPL Corporation, about $25 million. And PPL will be able to increase its power generation on six other dams on the Penobscot and its offshoots, recapturing about 90 percent of the power it will lose when the dams are demolished. The environmentalists also agreed to drop legal challenges to the relicensing of the dams by the federal government... Falcon Pair Stall Illumination Of Bridge A pair of peregrine falcons have stalled illumination of the port's Vincent Thomas Bridge. The lights won't be switched on until next summer so the pair can mate and raise their young in peace. Falcons are protected under the state Endangered Species Act. Supporters of the lights had hoped to see the outline of the region's largest suspension bridge ablaze with small blue lights by New Year's Eve. The idea was to transform the bridge into a showpiece...Interiorofficial rallies Republicans at annual barbecue The event's guest speaker -- Lynn Scarlett, Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management and Budget for the U.S. Department of the Interior -- spoke about the vision Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton have for the agency and how it would affect the Santa Maria Valley. Scarlett said the Bush administration wants to move away from the "Washington knows best approach" regarding land issues, especially when it comes to the Endangered Species Act, which the department implements. "What we are trying to do is reorient how people think of endangered species," said the UC Santa Barbara alumna. During her speech, Scarlett said the nation's conservation agency plans to start looking at independent scientific reviews on endangered species and make land-management decisions based on those results. She added that the department wants to change its environmental policy so that it focuses more on combined efforts between land owners and the government. "Real conservatism springs from folks like yourselves working with the land," she said. Scarlett also talked about a "four point plan" the department is working on. Those four points are: Fiscal responsibility, better management, building partnerships and working at the local level, she said...Budget cuts forcing massive Fish and Game layoffs With cuts in January that reduced state game warden numbers from 400 to around 350 positions, reduced personnel in the California Department of Fish and Game is not an unfamiliar situation to the department's game wardens. Now over 140 more wardens could soon be eliminated from what many feel is an already depleted workforce... Agency resumes bull trout protection plan U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials resumed work last week for the first time since April on a plan to protect Northwest bull trout habitat and the agency has found a new ally among Central Oregon irrigators. Just six months ago, Central Oregon ranchers and farmers braced for a fight with the federal agency that manages threatened and endangered species... Businesses welcome resumed river dredging After an eight-month delay, the final phase of the Petaluma River dredging project is under way and city tourism officials hope the work will help reverse a decline in boat traffic. About 85 percent of the work was completed last winter but work was halted in January when a large piece of debris damaged the motor of a suction dredge. By the time repairs were completed, spawning season had begun for endangered steelhead trout and the rest of the work had to be postponed...Sec. Norton Announces Agreement by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service State of Colorado to Conserve Mountain Plover Interior Secretary Gale Norton has announced a new agreement with the State of Colorado to promote the conservation of mountain plovers on agricultural lands while providing assurances to farmers and ranchers that they will not be prosecuted for inadvertently violating a federal law protecting the birds. Mountain plovers are high prairie birds that nest in open areas such as farm and ranch fields. Under a Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources (CDNR), participating farmers and ranchers agree to notify the state at least 72 hours before tilling their fields, allowing biologists to survey and flag plover nests. Farmers and ranchers also agree to till around the nests while gaining assurances they will not be prosecuted by the Department of Justice under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which strictly protects all migratory birds, if they accidentally harm a bird...Coyotes killing pets in Anchorage neighborhood Roaming coyotes apparently are targeting people's pets in an Anchorage neighborhood. Two coyotes killed a puppy running in the woods near its owners on a trail in the federal Campbell Tract within Far North Bicentennial Park. Just to the south, as many as a dozen cats and dogs have disappeared from the Zodiac Manor neighborhood... Interior defends roads deal to Congress Despite a congressional backlash and the threat of lawsuits, Interior Department officials have told members of Congress that they intend to go forward with the program to surrender federal ownership claims to miles of backcountry roads in Utah. Agency officials also say they have discussed developing similar road-release pacts with Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and San Bernardino County in California. But six months after the first-ever plan for resolving disputed road rights was agreed to by Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Gov. Mike Leavitt, the Bureau of Land Management has not received a single request to disclaim any federal right of way in Utah... Ranchers seek compensation for wildlife eating too much grass Wyoming took a step Monday toward creating four pilot programs that would pay ranchers and farmers for "extraordinary" wildlife consumption of grass on their property. Extraordinary damage is already defined in law as consumption or use of grass in excess of normal consumption by wildlife that took place two years prior to the damage claim. The state's Legislative Service Office has been asked to review rules and regulations to see whether four regional pilot programs can be established for a temporary period to compensate agricultural producers...Avila Gets Third Snaffle Bit Futurity Championship Bob Avila and Remedys Magic Potion powered their way to an insurmountable lead late in the first section of the Cow Work Finals of the 34th Annual NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity on Sunday, October 5. The near-capacity crowd at the Reno Livestock cheered as the score of 221.5 was given, and the cheering increased when Announcer Mark Thompson noted that the composite of 660 (Herd - 214.5, Rein - 224) had made them the new leaders. The score held and the win gave Avila his third NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Championship and a check for $100,000 to split with his partners _ Doug Carpenter of Sulphur, Oklahoma and Alan and Kay Needle of Temecula, California...Easy does it: Horse whisperer talks softly, carries small stick Dennis Reis has spent as much time behind the wheel of his truck as he has astride a horse lately, but that's just fine by the cowboy who has traveled across the country on a mission. Reis has traveled to 29 states in recent months to stage seminars to promote both his own gentle technique of training horses and riders, and his campaign for a National Day of the Horse... Western Writers of America to Have Presence at WHA Conference Fact meets fiction when Western novelist Elmer Kelton, seven-time winner of the Spur Award, delivers the keynote address at the Oct. 10 banquet of the 43rd annual Western History Association Conference. Western Writers of America, a nonprofit organization of 600 fiction and nonfiction writers, will also staff a booth at the WHA conference, Oct. 8-11 at the Renaissance Worthington Hotel. "The WHA meeting in Fort Worth will feature many WWA faces, including Elmer Kelton as the banquet speaker," said Paul Hutton, executive director of the WHA and president of the WWA. "This continues a growing tradition of convergence between the two organizations as they both work toward their mutual goal of promoting the best in western writing -- both fiction and nonfiction."...

Jim Beers on Wolves

"So 4 wolves killed 85 sheep in central Idaho in one weekend. But they only kill the sick ones. They only "balance" Mother Nature. They don't kill for "sport." It is "important" that they be reintroduced back to where a wiser generation eradicated them. They "don't" reduce game populations. They aren't "dangerous" to people. And so the Defenders of Wildlife and their US Fish & Wildlife partners tuck us all into bed.
They are on the verge of spreading like wildfire across the country. Between all the protection and unoccupied (by large canid competitors) habitat, and an ability to morph and adapt even greater than their more solitary coyote cousins they will spread like ink on a pain of glass. They WILL reduce deer, elk, moose, rabbits, coyotes, foxes, domestic dogs, horses, sheep, calves (and an occasional cow), and yes they will be a danger to unaccompanied children and older people under certain circumstances. They will learn to come into mall garbage sites for food scraps in the evening. They will follow deer into housing areas in the winter and be a hazard to dogs and schoolchildren. They (like the increasingly unmanaged and no-longer-harassed bears and cougars) will grow bolder around people and eventually attack adult joggers on trails or old folks walking their dog. And all the while the newspapers and TV folks will swallow and regurgitate the pap served up by the animal rights cults that wolves; like sharks, cougars, and bears “don't do that.” That people are "in their habitat." That the savaged person "behaved" incorrectly. That their habitat should be "saved" and people and homes and roads removed. That they have important “functions” in the ecosystem. Like the turkeys that were once claimed to “need” virgin forests or the Canada geese that were once said to be able to breed only in far northern marshes, the wolves will prove just how ignorant we are about their capabilities and “needs.”
The latest sleeping pill about what is happening is that places outside current “critical habitats” can manage the arriving wolves without Federal control (at this time.) Ah yes, like including “local governments” in planning committees we are assuaged. We are calmed by the “fact” that although 5 or 6 western states are having a lot of trouble it won’t be like that for “us.” As Bugs Bunny used to whisper, “sucker!” ".....

You can see all of the Jim Beers essays here

Court declines to consider challenge to Clinton monuments

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt praised the Supreme Court for refusing to consider a lawsuit challenging the creation of national monuments in five Western states.
The court reinforced the president's power to protect federal lands, Babbitt said Monday.
''I would suggest this is good news for future presidents,'' said Babbitt, who oversaw President Clinton's designation of 19 national monuments under the century-old Antiquities Act.
''This is a statement that the Antiquities Act continues in full force and will be available for future presidents to continue a centurylong tradition that has been extremely productive and helped shape our national park system and our system of refuges of all kinds,'' Babbitt said.
The Mountain States Legal Foundation of Denver, a conservative public interest law firm, said Clinton overstepped his authority in making the 2000 designations in Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state.
And Tulare County, Calif., argued that restrictions on timber harvesting as a result of the designation of a California monument have turned the forest into ''virtual tinder boxes'' that threaten safety and property.
Bush administration lawyer Theodore Olson said lawsuits against the president over the designation of national monuments are not allowed.
Last October, an appeals court dismissed Mountain States' challenge, saying it failed to spell out how the proclamations exceeded the authority that had been conveyed by Congress. The Supreme Court on Monday let the appellate ruling stand.
Attorneys for the groups challenging the monuments did not return phone messages.
The Antiquities Act gives presidents the power to protect land threatened by development. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first to use it to establish Devil's Tower in Wyoming as a national monument.
Since then, every president but Reagan and the two Bushes have used the power to create or expand a monument, establishing about 120 monuments spanning more than 70 million acres.
Clinton used the Antiquities Act to create 19 monuments and expand three others, protecting 5.9 million acres. State and local officials, ranchers, off-road vehicle users, oil and gas companies and others complained that his proclamations locked up too much land.
Babbitt said careful research went into decisions on boundaries. The Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona was cut almost in half because archaeologists said part of the area proposed for monument designation didn't warrant protection.
Jim Angell, the Earthjustice attorney who defended the monument designation, said that, in addition to reinforcing the appeals court decision supporting the president's authority to designate monuments, it put to rest an argument floated by the Bush administration that it had the power to shrink or eliminate monuments, as well as create them.
''Monuments have a strong public constituency and it would have been a pretty blatant affront to those constituencies to start shrinking or eliminating monuments,'' Angell said. ''This is the last nail in the coffin of that argument.''
The monuments that were the focus of the legal challenge are the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, the Ironwood Forest National Monument, and the Sonoran Desert National Monument in Arizona; the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado; the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon; Giant Sequoia National Monument in California; and the Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington.
The Bureau of Land Management is in the process of planning how to manage the monuments. The lawsuits did not affect that work.
The cases are Mountain States Legal Foundation v. Bush, 02-1590, and Tulare County v. Bush, 02-1623.

The Pilgrim Family & The NPS

The Anchorage Daily News has run a two part story on the current controversy and the background of the Pilgrim family. Part one is Pilgrims vs. Park Service and is accompanied by Alaska offers test of RS 2477. Part two of the series is Papa's passage: A long-ago tragedy, fed-up neighbors, and a mysterious blue Chevy Corvette. This is an amazing article, which not only discusses the current controversy, but includes JFK, Judith Exner and John Connally. I recommend you read all three articles. For the most recent ALRA alert on this family go here. For additional background from the ALRA go here.

NEWS ROUNDUP

Let it burn; put it out The Rincon and Santa Catalina mountains are practically joined at the hip, but their relationship with fire has become a study in contrasts. For thousands of years, lightning-sparked fires crept across both ranges in a similar way, consuming fuel on the forest floor once or twice a decade. But in the past century, as the Catalinas were developed and the Rincons stayed primitive, federal officials were forced to handle fire quite differently in the neighboring mountains... State report says California sapping world's timber California's efforts to protect its own forest land is spurring more logging in other nations, particularly Canada, to feed construction in the nation's most populous state, according to a new state report...Archaeologists find evidence of Chinese camp in Sierra Archaeologists have uncovered evidence near this Sierra town of what's thought to be a Chinese logging camp that dates back to the 1870s. Artifacts found at the Tahoe National Forest site off Sawtooth Road include an ax head, metal files, opium can fragments, a Chinese medicine bottle and tableware fragments... National needs, local concerns The push to develop rich natural gas fields in the West has officials in three Colorado communities concerned the Bush administration is forgetting promises it made to give them influence over use of federal lands. La Plata and Garfield county commissioners are pleading for more environmentally friendly drilling techniques. The Grand Junction City Council was angered by what some saw as a federal failure to protect the local water supply...Use of hatchery salmon to boost wild runs raises thorny questions Many of the spawning salmon were born in the stainless-steel trays of hatcheries and are now being encouraged to mate in the rivers to try to boost the population of wild runs listed under federal Endangered Species Act. This practice raises a complicated and fundamental question in the multibillion-dollar regional effort to save wild Northwest salmon runs: When is a wild fish really wild, with the genetic smarts to help sustain healthy runs for generations to come?...Editorial: Environmentalists should be held accountable An absurd battle is brewing around a congressional act concerning public-lands grazing. The Senate recently adopted a provision to keep ranchers' grazing permits current until environmental reviews of their allotments are completed. Environmentalists are up in arms over the provision, claiming it bypasses federal policy that requires environmental analysis be done before grazing permits are reissued. They want those reviews to justify grazing and want all grazing activity to cease until such assessments can be done...Comeback of prairie chickens a success story Thirty years ago, only about 600 greater prairie chickens remained, prompting a listing as a state endangered species. Now that number has swelled to an estimated 10,000, and the wildlife agency allows a limited hunting season that ranks as Colorado's most arcane adventure with a shotgun...Trinity River settlement eyed with suspicion A proposed settlement to a suit over sending more water down the Trinity River has sent a torrent of concern over Northern California officials who want to revive the river's salmon and steelhead runs. The proposal will be pitched by Westlands Water District, a main beneficiary of Trinity water, to Trinity County supervisors this week, and soon to supervisors in Humboldt County. Westlands General Manager Tom Birmingham will outline an offer the irrigation giant has made to the U.S. Interior Department, which is defending its Trinity restoration plan against Westlands in federal court...Grazing Permits Amendment Comes Under AttackRecent land-use legislation to streamline the permit process for ranchers who graze cattle on public lands has some environmental groups crying foul. Adopted by the Senate on Tuesday, the provision seeks to keep ranchers' permits current until environmental reviews of their allotments are completed... Editorial: Norton puts wilderness at risk U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton violated common sense and her own promises by opening 3 million acres of fragile federal lands to energy drilling and off-road-vehicles (ORVs). In Colorado, 600,000 acres are at risk, including Western Slope scenic areas and wildlife habitat like the Roan Plateau, Vermillion Basin and Big Ridge. The new policy, announced last week, means the Bureau of Land Management won't preserve pristine qualities that make the areas eligible for wilderness designation. In a designated wilderness, mineral development is banned and motorized vehicles are prohibited except in emergencies. By letting ORVs and drill rigs into the areas, Norton will let their pristine nature be ruined - and so ensure that Congress never gets to consider them for wilderness designation...Regulation of the environment benefits the economy, says a White House report It came as a surprise, therefore, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently declared that environmental regulations are good for the economy. Looking at a variety of areas - education, energy, housing, health, labor, but mostly the environment - the Bush administration's budget office reported to Congress that "the estimated total annual quantified benefits of these rules range from $146 billion to $230 billion, while the estimated total annual quantified costs range from $36 billion to $42 billion." Of these totals, according to OMB, the yearly benefits of environmental regulations range from $121 billion to $193 billion, the costs from $37 billion to $43 billion. In other words, benefits of things like government-mandated clearer air and cleaner water outweigh costs by as much as 5 to 1...Animas-La Plata meeting may be illegal A closed-door meeting attended by proponents of the Animas-La Plata Project may have violated Colorado and New Mexico open-meeting laws, said opponents and a news-media lawyer... Public help is sought to solve deaths of 7 wolves The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is asking the public for information in the deaths of seven Mexican gray wolves in Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico since March. Rewards of up to $10,000 are offered to anyone who can assist agents in the arrests of those responsible for the deaths of the wolves, a species that was reintroduced in 1998, said Victoria Fox, a service spokeswoman in Albuquerque...Norton names Montana BLM advisory members Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced the appointment of 17 members to Montana's three citizen-based Resource Advisory Councils that advise the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on public land issues... A Dying Tradition Lehi resident Dale Hunter is a rancher at heart. "I love spending my summers up with the cattle," he said. "It gets me out and I get to see wildlife. It is a hands-on job, it's very enjoyable. You've just got to love that way of life. I grew up with it and my ancestors were always that way and so it was passed on to me. It is a good way of life." But urban sprawl is changing that. Hunter was recently forced to sell more than two-thirds of the farmland that had been in his family for generations because American Fork wanted to build a park. "I really wasn't ready to sell, but it got condemned by American Fork," he said. "They wanted it for its aesthetic value. If I could have it all back again it would be nice, but it is not the same when you have homes and subdivisions all around you." Hunter was one of 42 ranchers who spent Thursday and Friday participating in an agricultural ritual that is as old as the valley's pioneer settlements -- gathering their combined 2,273 cattle from the summer grazing range in Spanish Fork Canyon to take them home for the winter. He said it is a tradition that may have no future...National Park Service Launches New Web Site to Highlight Hispanic Heritage Parks National Park Service Director Fran Mainella today announced the availability of a new web site designed to highlight the importance of Hispanic Heritage Parks and the part they play in the nation's history. The new site titled, "Hispanic Heritage Parks: An Iberian Project," assists visitors in experiencing the nation's Hispanic heritage that is preserved and interpreted throughout the National Park Service... Woolly workers prove their worth They're nature's lawnmowers. But a sheepish plan to cut the grass on Alberta's right-of-ways with a small army of woolly workers is struggling to overcome a basic design flaw: the sheep keep jumping the fence... Editorial: Don't play with fire It seems the fire bill is not out of the congressional woods yet. The agreement between the Senate and the White House on a landmark bill to protect public forests from fire and disease could still get lost in a procedural thicket in Congress. It also could still be smashed by the old-growth-size egos of members of Congress angered by a take-it-or-leave-it letter from seven Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, who reached the deal with the White House. House members don't have to like the letter or the process, but they should take seriously Wyden's threat to withdraw his support if the House starts tinkering with the deal. Wyden and other Senate Democrats have every reason to run, not walk, away if the House blows up their compromise... Stumbling Upon Wolf Tracks in the Northern Reaches of Yellowstone Three weeks ago I saw two wolf tracks in the mud of a creek bank high in Yellowstone National Park. It was old mud, from the last time the creek had overrun its banks, but the tracks had blurred only slightly. Each one was larger than my hand, fingers outstretched. Rain and snow blew in squalls across the valley, near the northern edge of the park. The long gravel beach was as gray as the clouds overhead, which dimmed and brightened minute by minute. I bent down to look at the tracks again and then returned to my fishing. But before long I reeled in and walked back over to the mud flat, just to reassure myself that the tracks were really there. They were... Democrats blasted for stalling Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., charged his Democratic colleagues with playing politics in stalling Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt's nomination to head the Environmental Protection Agency. "This boycott is nothing more than a political ploy by committee Democrats to try to influence the presidential election next year and disparage our president," Thomas said in a release... Crisis Looming: Demand for natural gas may produce next energy shortage Nationwide, as demand for natural gas grows and production from domestic supplies flattens out or declines, experts say the odorless, colorless gas -- the primary component of which is methane -- may be the source of the next energy crisis. Industry executives, analysts and politicians are all looking at ways to meet the nation's growing thirst for natural gas. Expanding supplies in the Rocky Mountains, offshore drilling and bringing in gas from overseas are all on the table... Goldwater Scholar Applauds Appeals Court Decision in Bailey Case, Warns Property Rights Still Not Safe in Arizona Goldwater Institute constitutional studies director Mark Brnovich applauded yesterday's decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals in the case of Bailey v. Myers, which pitted brake shop owner Randy Bailey against the City of Mesa. The Court ruled in favor of the Bailey family, holding that "Article 2, Section 17 of the Arizona Constitution prevents the City from taking the Baileys' property for this redevelopment project because the ultimate use of the property is not a public use. " But Brnovich also stated that the matter is far from settled. "Bailey and the Institute for Justice have won an important battle for Arizona property owners," he said. But the war is not over. First, Mesa may appeal the case to the Arizona Supreme Court, where Bailey's brake shop will face an uncertain outcome. Second, whatever happens in the Bailey case, the Supreme Court is unlikely to strike down Arizona's 1997 redevelopment statute, which Brnovich sees as a primary cause of eminent domain abuse... With liberty and salmon for all The creators of Salmon Nation ask that you think of it as a real place, defined not by political boundaries, but rather by the mountains, rivers, estuaries and ocean waters where salmon hold a keystone position among living things -- a land stretching from Alaska to California. "Imagine, if you could, a society and an economy based on the natural character of the land," said Spencer Beebe, founder and president of Ecotrust, the Portland nonprofit group orchestrating the Salmon Nation campaign, with help from Patagonia and other sponsors... Smell on earth: Grass Mesa residents choking on fumes from gas drilling Doug Dennison says he doesn't doubt natural gas drilling smells give many western Garfield County residents headaches, makes them nauseous, and is hard on their sleep. "I've spent the better part of two nights on Grass Mesa," said Dennison, Garfield County's oil and gas auditor. "The smell is worse in the early morning." Grass Mesa resident Rebecca Brock said that in July she started smelling the four gas wells that operate about a mile from her house. "I had to close the windows, and almost roasted to death," Brock said. "I couldn't run the swamp cooler, because it sucked the smells in."...Mule rides halted at Grand Canyon The popular mule train rides from the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park have been temporarily halted while canyon trails undergo maintenance. The mule rides, which ended in late September, could resume in about six months, according to Xanterra Parks and Resorts, which operates the rides along with lodges and restaurants at the South Rim...Lost sheep? Not on Dotti the llama's watch She is a 6-foot-tall creature with a shaggy body and a haughty air, her large brown eyes staring intently at a visitor who dares to approach her on a sunny afternoon. Dotti the llama has reason to be suspicious of strangers. Guarding sheep is a serious business. If Dotti is successful at her job, she will help a Humboldt County rancher resurrect the family's sheep farming business...Conservancy won't renew ranch lease The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy will not renew a lease next year with a local horse rancher after its board decided it could not rent out land purchased with public money to a private business. Jim Engel, the conservancy's executive director, said the recent decision was not influenced by a petition signed by about 35 residents complaining about Sue Gruber's Oso Ranch on Meyer Road... Glendive TV station is one-man operation As Ed Agre videotapes this small Montana town's annual parade, candy skids along the ground - thrown from a bank-sponsored float. Behind, farming tractors follow the local football team roaring from a flatbed truck. Though he looks like a proud grandfather trying to catch his grandchildren on tape, Agre, 66, is covering the news. He's news director, reporter and desk anchor for KXGN-Ch. 5 in Glendive, the smallest television news market in the nation. For a 100-mile radius, the only local broadcast news source from the Canadian border to southern Montana is KXGN, aka Ed Agre... Debts force cattle ranch liquidation Leachman Cattle Co. is going through a liquidation to pay off huge debts, likely marking the end of its world-renowned annual auction. Most ranch hands received their last paychecks Tuesday, and the fate of what's left of the ranch assets was being debated last week in Yellowstone District Court. Two ranches are on the block, along with the Leachman Cattle Co. name and the Hairpin brand...Future eyed in old dude ranch Interior Secretary Gale Norton is looking to an old dude ranch in Grand Teton National Park to help ensure the West's historic buildings do not simply rot away...Bison Burgers, for Humanity's Sake THREE years ago, Ted Turner's effort to restore the country's bison herds was such a success that it created a problem: a glut of bison meat. So Mr. Turner has started a restaurant chain, Ted's Montana Grill, where he is turning bison into burgers and, in the process, hoping to build what he calls "another great fortune.'' With little fanfare, Mr. Turner opened the first of the restaurants in 2002 and now has 11 of them in the South and West, five in this city alone. But as everyone knows, Mr. Turner thinks big. So it should come as no surprise that he has ambitious plans for what started as a simple experiment to see if he could create an appetite for bison...

NEWS ROUNDUP

Oregon's economic distress is deeply felt in Grant County Grant County's plight points to a structural problem in Oregon's rural economy that eludes easy answers. Much of rural Oregon was built on the promise of never-ending supplies of timber or fish or gold. As access to those resources dwindle in the 21st century, the question becomes one few can answer: What does Oregon do with the battered economies of isolated, rural counties like Grant?... Gov promises quicker drilling permits, more enforcement Gov. Dave Freudenthal told natural gas producers he would work to speed permitting and access to federal lands but also promised more enforcement of environmental rules. ''I'm more than willing to work to make sure that the federal resources are available. I'm more than willing to streamline, speed up permitting,'' he said at the seventh annual Wyoming Natural Gas Fair at Snow King Center. ''The flip side of that is, I intend to make sure that we have water quality standards (and) enforcement.'' Freudenthal said he will ask the Legislature for more funding to increase staff in the Department of Environmental Quality and State Engineer's Office...Forest Service hit with another timber sale lawsuit For the second time in less than a month, environmentalists have sued to stop a timber sale in the Seeley-Swan corridor of Highway 83, arguing the timber cut would hurt big game animals... Segment of National Forest blocked by landowners Private landowners have blocked access across their property, cutting off entry to the Lone Cone area of the San Juan National Forest north of Dolores. An earthen berm prevents visitors from entering the forest from the west on Forest Service Road 534. The same road is blocked at the eastern edge of the forest by a new wooden fence... Bates Hole ranchers work with creek The Bates Hole water basin southwest of Casper features solid examples of neighborly cooperation, stream rehabilitation and sustainable water development...Jonah field air quality questions arise Internal Bureau of Land Management e-mail correspondence leaked to an environmental group suggests federal regulators may have considered barring the general public from the Jonah gas field -- which lies on federal lands -- due to air quality concerns that would arise from intensified natural gas development...Editorial: Bad to worse It was bad enough that the governor of Utah and the U.S. Interior secretary cooked up a secret deal that took millions of acres of public lands out of the running for permanent federal wilderness protection. It is worse that Interior's Bureau of Land Management has announced that it will now apply the standards of that deal to nine other Western states, whether those states think it is a good idea or not. That is not only an offense to the people in those states, who didn't even have the privilege of sending one of their elected officials into secret talks with the feds, but also to all the people of the rest of the United States, in whose name the BLM supposedly does its work... Drilling debate The state Department of Natural Resources is being alternately praised and criticized for recommending limited gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. The Department of Natural Resources - or DNR - recently called for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to allow drilling pads to be spaced no more densely than one every 160 acres, and to use directional drilling on the plateau, located northwest of Rifle...Bureau takes Blame for Animas-La Plata costs Proponents of the Animas-La Plata Project have joined forces to lay blame for $162.1 million in cost overruns solely on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation - blame the bureau says it will accept. Forty-four proponents and lawyers, meeting in secret Aug. 14 at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio, agreed to try to get the bureau to take responsibility for the ballooning construction costs, rather than to point fingers at one another...Klamath interests working on accord Klamath Basin tribes and farmers are seeking to resolve their battle over water through a historic accord, according to published reports. Recent meetings in Klamath Falls have drawn nearly 20 leaders from Southern Oregon and Northern California. Their goals are to assure farms a predictable, if reduced, water supply and to restore fish and wildlife promised to the tribes under their 1864 treaty with the government. The talks come as the Bush administration continues weighing a return to the tribes of roughly 690,000 acres of former reservation land that is now national forest, according to The Oregonian and (Klamath Falls) Herald and News...Congress hears testimony on Indian water rights bill Senate and House committees heard testimony last week in Washington on an unprecedented Indian water rights agreement that would give several tribes the rights to much of the water remaining for future growth in Arizona...State working on water purchases The New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission has finalized deals with landowners in the Pecos Valley Artesian Conservancy District for the purchase of land and attached water rights, and it's close to doing the same in the Carlsbad Irrigation District, water officials said last week. "The deals have been made with landowners within the CID, and we are working to get them closed," said ISC Commissioner Jim Wilcox of Carlsbad... A Takeover Artist's New Target Is Land For T. Boone Pickens, the onetime Texas oilman and corporate investor of the 1980's, it is a new venture. He is combing the lands of West Texas, buying working cattle ranches and selling them to executives who are looking for grand places to play. Unlike the classic American ranch, with vast spaces populated by cattle and by men in cowboy hats, modern recreational ranches may be bereft of livestock. Mr. Pickens's own Mesa Vista Ranch, in the Texas Panhandle, an hour's flight from Dallas in his private jet, is a prototype of the recreational ranch. It has no cattle at all - just deer and quail for hunting and amenities like a gym, a basketball court and a small golf course... Editorial: A rational response to Western wildfires I'm naive enough to believe there's consensus around the high-priority things we should be doing to protect people, communities and property. That consensus, however, begins to dissolve when special interest groups try to piggy-back their private interests onto our wildfire response. Ignoring that perverse effort to exploit other people's hard times, let me outline the responses I think almost everyone supports... Column: Kiss Your Property Rights Goodbye! I have warned many times of the dangers of homeowner's associations (HOA's). As I speak around the nation on the subject of "Sustainable Development," an environmental term intended to disguise the elimination of property rights, inevitably someone from the audience questions my opposition to them. The common defense seems to be that they are voluntary and, if you don't like them, don't move into a community that has one. While it would be nice to let all of the control freaks and frustrated Property Nazis live together in their walled compounds, unfortunately, that's not reality. The problem is, as land use controls under Sustainable Development policies become more widely imposed, HOA's are growing at rapid rates. In Fairfax County, VA, more than 90% of all town homes, condos and single family homes are now in HOA's. Freedom of choice is not an option. For those of you not yet facing the tyranny of having your neighbors empowered with the ability to control, place liens and even take your property if they dislike the color of your paint job, here are a few examples of what you have to look forward to...Texas-size legacy The King Ranch returned to its roots Saturday with a good old-fashioned livestock auction to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Starched blue jeans, brush-popper shirts and cowboy hats and boots were the uniform of the day for many in the crowd of 1,500 who jammed into a show arena on the grounds of the historic ranch near Kingsville. "If you gave me one phrase that comes to mind when you think about Texas, that phrase would be 'King Ranch,'" said Gov. Rick Perry, who walked in bareheaded before someone handed him a King Ranch anniversary baseball cap... Also see Horses, history at King Ranch's first cattle and horse sale.... Ranch families hope to preserve school building on Red Lodge Creek For nearly 100 years, Jackson School was the center of activity for ranch families living along Red Lodge Creek. Christmas pageants, graduation parties and wedding receptions competed with square dancing, book clubs and 4-H meetings in the one-room schoolhouse. But classes ended in 1999... Chinook cowboy entertainer finds blessings at home, abroad First they took the cows, then the machinery. Finally, the debt collector kicked Ken and Dawn Overcast out of their brick ranch house in Chinook. As the couple left that October day they wrote a blessing and hung it on a kitchen wall, in the spot where their clock once ticked, expecting never to return... When newcomers ruin a way of life "Entering Powell Butte: Home of Good Crops, Good Stock & Good Neighbors." That'd be the sign next door to the Post Office, on Tom Burke's place. The letters are fading, but the words are true. At least for now. Despite Oregon 126's seductively fast asphalt, locals in this central Oregon town drive conservatively. There's the school, the church and the store, and farm rigs have to cross the road. Powell Butte's heart is paced by the rhythms of cows, sheep, potatoes, garlic and mint. Seven hundred people live here, love here and die here by the seasons...On The Edge Of Common Sense: PETA ad campaign funny, but we can do better Big news in Helena during rodeo week. The animal rights group PETA was prevented from putting anti-rodeo billboards up in the city. It turns out the owner of the billboard company thought the poster was too risque. Actually, I thought part of the poster was funny. It had a seductive model laying on a bed of straw with the caption: "Nobody likes an eight second ride." But PETA had also added a crude play on words that justifies its rejection. PETA is known for its vulgarity and insensitive ads, activities and pronouncements such as comparing slaughtered chickens to the holocaust, butchering hogs to Jeffrey Dahmer the child killer cannibal, and stating it would be a good thing if American animals contracted foot and mouth disease...5,000 wild hogs are tearing up Ozarks On a ridge overlooking Hiram Henson's 320-acre cattle farm in Taney County, a snorting wild hog continually slams its 300 pounds against the sides of a pen set up to trap her and her kin. This female is the eighth and biggest feral pig Henson has caught in a week. Henson doesn't know how many are on his land, but any is too many. Giant jigsaw-puzzle pieces of pasture have been scarred as if by a backhoe, evidence of wild hogs rooting for grubs or worms. But that's not Henson's biggest concern. "I'm worried about 'em eating the calves, the ones that just get born," he said...

Appeals court reinforces property rights in Mesa case

In a ruling with implications for redevelopment efforts in cities across Arizona, a state court yesterday sided with a family-owned brake shop slated for condemnation to make way for a new hardware store in a designated redevelopment area.
The Court of Appeals said Mesa failed to demonstrate that public benefits from the condemnation of Bailey's Brake Services would substantially outweigh the private nature of the planned use of the downtown site.
The Arizona Constitution says public property can be condemned for a use that is "really public" and that courts should decide whether that test has been met.
It's not enough for a local government, such as the Mesa City Council in the Bailey case, to find there's a public need for the project, according to a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals.
"The city does not propose to take the Baileys' property for a traditional public use such as a street, park or governmental building. Nor is this taking essential for the provision of public services or for reasons of public safety or health," Judge John C. Gemmill wrote.
"Instead, the completion of this redevelopment project will result in the property becoming part of a privately owned retail center with stores, restaurants and office space," Gemmill added...

Militants say they planted Shaklee bomb
Animal activists attacking clients of research firm

A militant animal rights group that claimed it bombed an Emeryville biotechnology firm in August is taking responsibility for Friday's explosion at Shaklee Inc.'s offices in Pleasanton -- warning that next time the bombs will be bigger and more damaging. In an anonymous e-mail sent to fellow activists across the country early Tuesday morning, Revolutionary Cells described the explosive used at Shaklee, a company that sells health, beauty and household products, as a 10-pound ammonium nitrate bomb "strapped with nails."
The same group has taken responsibility for attacking Chiron's office building on Aug. 28 with two pipe bombs filled "with ammonium nitrate slurry with redundant timers." Revolutionary Cells said it is trying to put Huntingdon Life Sciences, a New Jersey research firm that experiments on animals, out of business by harassing its clients. Chiron, and Shaklee's parent company, Yamanouchi Consumer Inc., have both subcontracted with Huntingdon to have medicines tested on animals.
"All customers and their families are considered legitimate targets," the group wrote...