NEWS ROUNDUP
Ending logging acrimony aim of ex-official's center Former Gov. John Kitzhaber is creating a natural-resources policy institute with the goal of finding peace in the timber wars still raging 10 years after the Northwest Forest Plan was supposed to put them to rest. Central to finding a way past continuing acrimony over logging in the Northwest will be developing a means of evaluating conflicting research in forest management, Kitzhaber said. "I'm trying to focus on developing a new set of governance management tools for natural resources in the West," Kitzhaber said yesterday. "I am convinced the conflict paradigm we are engaged in doesn't deliver for any of the stakeholders. "The Biscuit [fire recover plan] is a classic example. The model has resulted in little salvage [logging], which is not good really for the [timber] industry or the environmental side."....
Area hunters expected to feel heat of fire restrictions As hunting season approaches, so does fire season, and once again Southern California hunters likely will lose access to prime hunting spots because of forest closures.
Thus far, the U.S. Forest Service has put fire restrictions on the San Bernardino National Forest by closing substantial sections, and word is the Service will take similar action in the Angeles, Cleveland and Los Padres national forests....
Roadless rule puzzles governor Confused about what the proposed roadless rule means for Wyoming and its national forests? Join the governor. Gov. Dave Freudenthal said Thursday the Bush administration's proposed rule to eliminate Clinton-era protections on forests' roadless areas "may not be as evil as some people see it, nor as good as others see it." Further, the governor doesn't know how the plan is "a step forward" and allows states meaningful participation....
Feds bring $38 million for Tahoe protection Interior Secretary Gale Norton brought the federal checkbook to Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas on Thursday, designating $37 million from government land sales in Southern Nevada for projects aimed at protecting the lake's azure waters. Included in the money, which is the first installment of a $300 million commitment by the federal government, is $3 million earmarked to reduce fire risks in the Tahoe basin, Norton said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also announced a $1.1 million grant to be used for new technology to control pollution in the basin....
Wilderness On Hold The Wilderness Act is turning 40 and Montana hasn’t put it to use in the past two decades. Is it still relevant today? Forty years ago, the United States did something that no nation had ever done before. With the passage of the Wilderness Act on Sept. 3, 1964, the U.S. made the decision to preserve some of the country’s wild places in perpetuity, to create areas in which development would not be allowed, so that future generations would be able to enjoy the same beautiful and valuable natural settings that hikers, hunters, fishermen and even passing drivers seeking windshield scenery enjoyed in 1964. The bill was first introduced in 1956 and finally enacted after eight years of heavy wrangling over its language....
Forest Service workers win sourcing work Officials in the Agriculture Department's Forest Service have announced their intent to award a five-year, $295 million competitive sourcing contract to the service's information technology services group. Under the rules of competitive sourcing, agency officials said they could offer no further information about the winning proposal until a waiting period ends. If the losing vendor does not protest or file an appeal, details about the Forest Service's bid could be made public by Aug. 16, said Joan Golden, the agency's acting director for information resources management....
Environmentalists demand more on Biscuit salvage plan Environmentalists who won a preliminary injunction blocking salvage logging in old growth forest reserves burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire said Thursday they will try to expand the order to include lands designated for logging under the Northwest Forest Plan. Meanwhile, it remained unclear whether the Siskiyou National Forest would simply mark the dead trees to be left standing for wildlife, or seek another way of complying with a federal court order barring them from leaving that work to the timber buyers....
Mining company plans to develop Cabinet Mountains mine A Spokane mining company says it plans to develop a silver and copper mine in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area on the Idaho-Montana border. Mines Management Inc. said Wednesday it will seek permits to open the proposed $236 million Montanore Mine near the disputed Rock Creek Mine. Although the projects would share an ore body, Mines Management President Glenn Dobbs said he thinks his proposed mine will generate less criticism than the Rock Creek Mine....
Complexity 'humbles' environmental chiefs Top federal officials in Portland Wednesday said science is playing an increasingly key role in decisions about the management of about forests, oceans, watersheds and other vital ecosystems -- but that science alone can not provide foolproof solutions to complex environmental problems. The leaders of the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in appearing at the annual meeting of the 8,000-member Ecological Society of America, said the public needs a better understanding of science and what it can offer, as well as better communication between researchers and managers. Together, the three oversee nearly 60,000 employees and roughly $8 billion in public spending....
Wolves kill bear-hunting dogs in Wisconsin Gray wolves from an Ashland County pack killed three bear-hunting dogs earlier this week. The incident occurred Wednesday in the Town of Shanagolden, west of Glidden, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The wolves have lived in the area for years; and this is the first reported killing there, according to the DNR. It also is the first reported killing of dogs by wolves in the state this year....
Ranchers gain habitat exemptions The Bush administration is giving Central Valley ranchers freer rein as officials seek to protect the threatened California tiger salamander. The obligations imposed by the Endangered Species Act will apply across the tiger salamander's potential range that stretches between Colusa County in the north and Kern County in the south. Soon, the Fish and Wildlife Service will follow up by proposing that 382,666 acres in 20 California counties be designated as critical habitat. Ranchers, though, secured wide-ranging exemptions from this normal rule. The ranching exemptions granted Wednesday, moreover, go further than the Bush administration had originally proposed. This means ranchers can fix fences, maintain stock ponds, build roads and corrals, spray for weeds and undertake other actions without worrying about whether it harms the tiger salamander....
Column: Here Come the Wolves Wolves are once again loping through Colorado and Utah, and I suppose I should be glad. More rapidly than it took to wipe out grizzlies, lynx and other competitor species, wolves are returning to the ark of the Southern Rockies ecosystem. But yet I pause, and an absorbing four-minute film I saw recently gets at the core of my ambivalence. The film was made at Yellowstone National Park, where wolves were reintroduced in 1995, and it shows two wolves chasing a herd of elk almost playfully before getting down to the serious business of killing. Narrowing their attention to one cow, the pair of wolves follow at a respectful distance for a minute, then quicken the pace before leaping at the throat of the tiring cow....
State Report Criticizes Hearst Ranch Deal As state officials near a key decision on the $95-million deal to preserve Hearst Ranch, the terms of the transaction are coming under increasing criticism that the deal is too generous to the Hearst Corp. The latest critique, from the legislative analyst's office, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, contends that the deal may be based on a faulty appraisal and lacks specific, enforceable provisions to protect wildlife and rare plants. It recommends that the state withhold endorsement until a closer analysis can be made....
Water board OKs habitat plan that will cost millions Arizona's largest water provider agreed Thursday to spend millions of dollars to help preserve a habitat for endangered species along the lower Colorado River, endorsing a plan that ultimately will be paid for by Arizona water users. Prodded by a top federal water official, the Central Arizona Water Conservation Board voted to join California and Nevada in support of a broad habitat-conservation plan, one the states hope will block lawsuits that would limit river access. Over 50 years, the plan could cost Arizona $100 million or more, but state officials say it's worth it to help protect the state's share of the Colorado River as well as the river itself....
Feds consider protecting herring near Bellingham Federal fisheries officials in Seattle agreed yesterday to consider giving Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection to Cherry Point herring, a once-abundant species that spawns near Bellingham but has declined to critical levels. The announcement doesn't mean the fish, which are considered vital in the food chain for everything from salmon to orcas, will be listed or protected yet....
Sage grouse protection plan approved The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission approved a plan Thursday designed to keep the sage grouse from an endangered species listing in Montana, in part by protecting its habitat. The three-pronged conservation plan includes purchasing 30-year habitat protection agreements on approximately 183,000 acres of private land where sage grouse typically mate and winter. The agreements will protect sagebrush....
Endangered birds interfere with highway project A small seabird stands in the way of one of the state's largest and most urgent highway repair jobs. The threatened marbled murrelet lives in the waters surrounding the crumbling Hood Canal bridge and now Washington state is going to great lengths to keep these birds and the bridge project from crossing paths. The state hired Hamer and his team to spot and chase off marbled murrelets that get too close to the Hood Canal bridge during the loud and dangerous underwater pile driving process....
Environmentalists Hail Global Warming Lawsuit Bluewater Network applauds legal action by California Attorney General Lockyer to address the threats of global warming. Lockyer and officials from seven other states and the City of New York filed a federal nuisance suit against five electric utilities responsible for the largest emissions of carbon dioxide in the country. "Despite nearly total denial from the Bush Administration, the science demonstrates a clear and present threat from global warming," said Elisa Lynch, Global Warming Campaign Director for Bluewater Network....
Part of Alaska Park Closed; Hiker Met Bear Officials closed a backcountry area of Denali National Park after a hiker told rangers he had driven off an attacking grizzly bear by burying his ice ax in the animal's back. Park Service spokeswoman Kris Fister said Roberto Cataldo, 29, of Modena, Italy, reported the encounter Monday. A roughly 50-square-mile tract that encompasses the area where Cataldo said he had hiked was closed indefinitely....
Park probing claim of ranger brutality The National Park Service this week launched an internal investigation after two of its rangers-pepper sprayed an Inverness Park brother and sister in the face. Witnesses said the rangers repeatedly sprayed the 17-year-old girl in the eyes although she was restrained and on the ground. Neither Chris Miller, 18, nor his sister Jessica, 17, were charged with any wrongdoing in the incident, which occurred off park property near the Green Bridge in Point Reyes Station. The two were detained and pepper-sprayed by rangers Roger Mayor and Angeline Gregorio in front of the former Point Reyes Villa restaurant last Wednesday evening. The incident has outraged eyewitnesses who say the rangers were brutal in needlessly pepper-spraying the teens, especially after Jessica was already handcuffed and under the rangers’ control....
Park zeros in on elk herds A group working on reducing the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park has whittled down suggestions from the public to six alternatives. The goal is a 20-year plan to restore vegetation in the park, especially varieties killed by elk....
Coal-to-diesel plant proposed A Texas company is proposing a $2.75 billion plant to process coal into diesel, electricity and other products. Houston-based DKRW Energy is hoping to open a coal gasification and liquefaction facility on the Medicine Bow River Ranch by 2008. The plant would use technology not yet in commercial use in the United States to create "ultra-clean" diesel fuel, other petroleum products and low-cost electricity to send over a new transmission line to Western markets, DKRW partner Bob Kelly told the Carbon County Commission....
Robbins grazing lawsuit stays in D.C. The national spotlight will be shining on a lawsuit involving a Wyoming rancher, two conservation groups and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The lawsuit in the case of Thermopolis-area rancher Harvey Frank Robbins Jr. -- who has been embroiled with the BLM after a decade of disputed grazing violations -- will be heard in Washington, D.C., and not in Wyoming, a federal judge has decided. The judge rejected arguments by Robbins' attorney that the lawsuit -- filed by two conservation groups against the BLM -- is a local controversy that should be decided in a federal court in Wyoming. Robbins is an intervener in the suit....
Editorial: BLM land sales A Bush administration proposal would let the Bureau of Land Management keep a portion of the money it generates from land sales. The idea has, of course, caused distress among the green crowd. This is a good idea because it would encourage the BLM to be more aggressive with its land sales. The U.S. government simply doesn't need to control so much real estate. Anything that could lead to more private ownership of federally managed land should be encouraged -- after all, much of what is now under the jurisdiction of Washington hardly resembles Yellowstone National Park....
Column: Greenies should say it like it is on lake name The environmentalists advocating dropping the "lake" from Lake Powell and calling it a reservoir do not fall into the category of straight-talkers, however. They are strategic incrementalists, people who will deny their ultimate goal - draining Lake Powell - right up to and possibly including the day it happens. If they had the decency to acknowledge their plan for what it is - an incremental baby step toward draining a vitally important source of Western water - then I could at least respect their sense of determination. As it is, they are playing childish mind games at a time - the worst period of Western drought on record - that Powell's importance is increasing exponentially....
Water: Our country's most precious resource Water conservation is becoming an accepted practice, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which points to the stable volume of water used since the mid-1980s. "The message is that humans are adaptable creatures," said Robert Hirsch, chief hydrologist. "To me that is a very positive message." The nation used 408 billion gallons per day in 2000, the same as in 1990 and down from 440 billion gallons per day in 1980. With today's population, that's about 1,430 gallons per person, Hirsch said, adding that most of that is for industry and agriculture. Household water use is about 100 gallons a day per person - for drinking, cooking, laundry, watering the lawn, etc....
Animas-La Plata work behind schedule The Bureau of Reclamation says the Animas-La Plata project is 14 percent complete. The completion date has been pushed back from April 2008 to July 2010. The bureau’s Barry Longwell told the San Juan Water Commission that contracts have been coming in steadily both under and over budget....
Water settlement 'win-win,' Dayish says The debate over a proposed settlement between New Mexico and the Navajo Nation on water from the San Juan River continued Monday in Farmington with a public hearing on the proposal. While a number of people - both Navajo and non-Navajo - spoke up in favor of the settlement, it was evident that there are some on both sides who would rather see the settlement go a different route. "If you look at the situation from the bigger perspective," said Vice President Frank Dayish Jr., "you will see that it is a win-win situation for all parties."....
At 70, Wendell Berry remains a champion of agrarian ideals Wendell Berry, 70 years old today, has established himself as many things in his lifetime: a veteran sage of sustainable agriculture; a progressive defender of virtue and tradition; one of our most famous farmers to renounce the tractor; and one of our most acclaimed authors to shun the computer....
Writing out of the Box There was an audible gasp in the audience as author C.J. Box finished reading an excerpt from his latest book, "Trophy Hunt," at the Natrona County Public Library on Thursday. Box, who read to a packed crowd, which included Casper's Red Hat Society, read the latest fictional adventures of Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden who has appeared in Box's three other books....
Old West history game entertains American troops in Kuwait "Ride the Outlaw Trail" is all the rage in Kuwait with American soldiers. Dusty Grothusen, creator of the Old West board game, is in Ardmore with the Western Arts, Crafts, & Cowboy Legends Show at Hardy Murphy Coliseum through Sunday. "Ride the Outlaw Trail' was the most sought after item at the Golden Boot Awards in Los Angeles this weekend," Grothusen. "That is all the movie actors that have made cowboy movies down through the years." "Because this board game is 100 percent history and of course, our Western history to boot, they really, really wanted this," she said....
Ranchers thwart BSE tests Ranchers suffering from the mad cow crisis may be delaying the U.S. border from opening to live Canadian cattle after shooting, shovelling and shutting up. A 119-page report by Alberta Auditor General Fred Dunn suggests ranchers are following the mock advice of Premier Ralph Klein by abandoning cattle carcasses rather than taking them in for BSE testing. And the government isn't doing enough in forcing ranchers to report diseased and dead cattle for provincial and national BSE surveillance programs, said Dunn....
STERIS Announces Research Breakthrough in Inactivating Deadly Prions STERIS Corporation (NYSE: STE - News) today announced that the Company, in cooperation with leading independent prion researchers, has participated in research that indicates the effectiveness of several of the Company's proprietary cleaning and sterilization technologies in inactivating prions. Prions are proteins that have been associated with debilitating and fatal illnesses in both animals and humans. Until now, it has not been possible to inactivate prions without damaging contaminated surfaces....
New info on mad cow in humans Scientists have found evidence suggesting the human form of mad cow disease might be infecting a wider group of people than previously believed and that some may develop a milder form of the illness. Little is known about Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, first identified in 1996. Until now, the variant form of fatal brain-wasting disease was found only in people with a certain genetic profile and who were believed to have been infected by tainted meat. Other forms of Creutzfeld- Jakob are believed to occur sporadically or are inherited and not linked to diet. Research published this week in The Lancet medical journal reported the mad cow-related infection in a person with a more common genetic makeup and with no symptoms of the illness. That means more people than previously believed could be incubating the disease, thought to come from eating processed beef products from cattle infected with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It raises the possibility that some may get only a mild infection, as opposed to the fatal disease. Scientists don't know how many people are infected with the human form of mad cow disease. Projections vary wildly because so many factors that play into the disease remain a mystery and because there have been so few cases....
Friday, August 06, 2004
Thursday, August 05, 2004
DIAMOND BAR CATTLE COMPANY
Congressman Steve Pearce/Kit Laney
At Tuesday’s arraignment federal prosecutors upgraded the assault charges to include assault with a deadly weapon.
“I will tell you,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), “that we’re pretty disappointed the Justice Department recently decided to upgrade the charges. They’re declaring the reins, the saddle and the spurs that Kit Laney had as being dangerous weapons. I tell you that whole situation, the way that the Forest Service handled that whole problem, still needs deeper investigation.”
After the March arrest, Pearce called for an investigation. “The inspector general is still working on that. We do not have a final report,” he said....
Congressman Steve Pearce/Kit Laney
At Tuesday’s arraignment federal prosecutors upgraded the assault charges to include assault with a deadly weapon.
“I will tell you,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), “that we’re pretty disappointed the Justice Department recently decided to upgrade the charges. They’re declaring the reins, the saddle and the spurs that Kit Laney had as being dangerous weapons. I tell you that whole situation, the way that the Forest Service handled that whole problem, still needs deeper investigation.”
After the March arrest, Pearce called for an investigation. “The inspector general is still working on that. We do not have a final report,” he said....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Forest Service to retool fire fleet U.S. Forest Service officials say they will release a plan to modernize the nation's fleet of firefighting air tankers by the end of September. "We want to get through this wildfire season and understand how much of the fleet will be available and for how long," said Tony Kern, Forest Service assistant director of aviation management. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said that during a late July meeting in Washington, D.C., Forest Service officials told him that they are considering purchasing planes that the Navy plans to decommission before the end of the year. Rehberg said Forest Service officials told him that they may maintain ownership of the decommissioned planes and contract out with companies like Neptune to operate them. The Republican lawmaker is still pondering the notion. "I'd have to take a look at it," Rehberg said. "Traditionally I have been opposed to the government doing something that private companies can do, but I am not throwing cold water on any ideas at this point."....
Greenpeace: Police move in on protesters Law officers descended Wednesday on a logging protest in the Tongass National Forest where Greenpeace activists have chained themselves to bulldozers and set up roadblocks. Greenpeace protester Jeremy Paster said more than a dozen officers arrived Wednesday evening with a small crane and started removing the group's belongings. "They are removing all of our safety gear, food, all of our belongings," Paster said, adding that the arm of the crane was being waved near trees where protesters, including himself, were stationed. No arrests were immediately reported....
Alaska locals want a sliver of the forest He and other Gustavusans are among a growing number of conservationists advocating for "micrologging," or small-scale timbering, as an ecologically sound alternative to clear-cutting and constructing more logging roads at taxpayer expense. This summer, citizens in tiny Gustavus are challenging that paradigm. They are asking the Forest Service to radically change the way it does business. Instead of bidding for 10 million board feet of public timber that would have to be logged over the next 10 years, residents want the flexibility to harvest half a million board feet annually for 200 years....
End old growth wars: DeFazio's bill shifts focus to forest thinning DeFazio's bill, unveiled last week in Springfield, begins by recognizing the obvious: President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan has failed. The 1994 plan promised to preserve habitat for threatened and endangered species such as the northern spotted owl, while also providing a predictable harvest of 1 billion board feet of timber each year from public lands in Western Oregon and Washington. Neither promise has been kept. The plan's reliance on old growth timber sales for part of the predicted harvest volume represented a continuing threat to sensitive species. The resulting litigation has slowed timber sales to a trickle - last year, westside lands administered by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management yielded just 162 million board feet of timber. The Northwest Forest Plan has long been dead; after 10 years, it's time to bury the corpse....
Drought conditions prompt wood cutting ban Extreme dryness created by the hot weather and drought conditions has forest service officials banning all firewood cutting in the Carson ranger district. Forest rangers are temporarily banning all wood-cutting because trees are so dry there is a high risk a chainsaw could spark a wildfire....
Silverton skiing may expand The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will recommend for the first time that some unguided skiers be allowed on expert-only Silverton Mountain, ending more than three years of study of Colorado's first new ski area in decades. The bureau's final environmental impact statement, to be released Friday, will allow as many as 475 guided and unguided skiers a day - up from 80 - at the area above the struggling mining village of Silverton....
Japanese researchers produce trout from salmon Researchers at a Japanese university have succeeded for the first time in producing trout from salmon, in a method that promises hope for protecting endangered species. Associate Prof. Goro Yoshizaki and other researchers at Tokyo's University of Marine Sciences and Technology succeeded in the method by injecting primordal germ cells (PGCs), which can grow into either sperm or eggs, from a rainbow trout into the body of a male yamame (landlocked salmon). When these cells developed into sperm and were inserted into the normal eggs of rainbow trout, rainbow trout were born. The successful experiment was reported in the science journal "Nature."....
Group hails state for fighting effort to protect grouse A business group has cheered Colorado's opposition to listing the sage grouse as an endangered species. "There's almost no limit to economic damage that could be caused by a sage grouse listing," said Jim Sims, executive director of Partnership for the West. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed the move, but Colorado officials say the birds' numbers are holding steady or increasing....
Judge protects desert tortoise habitat in California A federal judge struck down permits issued by the Bush administration that allowed cattle grazing and off-road vehicles in a desert tortoise habitat in California, saying they violated the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston ruled Tuesday that the Department of Interior hadn't done enough to protect the tortoise on 4.1 million acres set aside for its recovery in the California desert. "The congressional intent in enacting the ESA was clear: Critical habitat exists to promote the recovery and survival of listed species," Illston said. "Conservation means more than survival; it means recovery."....
Hundreds of dead birds wash up on the Oregon coast However in the last few days, beachgoers have found hundreds of dead birds, scattered among the water carved sand dunes. "Oh my gosh, there is definitely a lot of them," said on visitor. "My daughters were tearful about it. It is very sad." The birds that are washing up on the coast are 'Common Murres,' but they have a somewhat uncommon migration....
Editorial: Of water, birds and of death Chase Lake is one of the sites where a disturbing mystery has taken place. Chase Lake is special because of the thousands and thousands of pelicans who live there every year. Their rookeries used to be on the island in the lake. When that filled, the birds spread to the lake's edge. In the springtime, when everything is hatching and flowering, the lake is alive with pelicans. Then, the trouble came this spring. The pelicans abandoned their rookeries at just the wrong time and thousands of baby pelicans died. Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, biologists and others concerned are looking for the reason the pelicans left their nests and moved to different areas....
Sheep Rancher Beats Energy Company A jury found Williams Production guilty on all counts and awarded a Rifle-area sheep rancher and property owner more than $4 million in unpaid natural-gas royalties. The five-woman and one-man jury returned the verdict late Monday night, after receiving the case that afternoon and hearing testimony all last week. They ruled Williams, one of the largest gas operators in Garfield County, was guilty of breach of contract, violated the Consumer Protection Act and acted in bad faith. William Clough, an 85-year-old, third-generation sheep rancher, filed the suit. He claimed Williams and Barrett Resources, which merged with the Williams Cos. in 2001, had not paid him all agreed-upon royalties over an eight-year period....
Proposal would let BLM use more money from land sales in West The Bush administration wants to let the Bureau of Land Management use more of the profits from public land sales in the West. The proposal would let the BLM designate profits from the sale of lands that it has identified for disposal since July 25, 2000. Federal law now requires the profits to be deposited into the U.S. treasury. Twenty percent of sale proceeds would be directed back to the BLM to cover administrative expenses, 20 percent would be earmarked for conservation projects, and 60 percent would be used to buy environmentally sensitive land from private ownership....
State has won war against invasive weed tansy ragwort Invading plant species, an ecological problem once relegated to the back burner, have surged to the forefront of environmental conversations, one expert says, and a successful 25-year fight against one weed in the Northwest may hold valuable lessons for dealing with an increasing onslaught of other invasive species. The war against tansy ragwort in Oregon has essentially been won, says Peter McEvoy, a professor of ecology at Oregon State University, who spoke Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Portland....
Bear River Water Off-limits for 90 Farmers The Bear River has run out of water for 90 Cache Valley farmers. The state Division of Water Rights has told them to stop pumping Bear River water because the drought has depleted their irrigation shares. Jerry D. Olds is state engineer. One of his assistants says he's gotten advice from the state attorney general and can seek temporary restraining orders against any farmers who fail to stop pumping. But the state engineer's office expects the majority of the farmers will cooperate....
Bush vows to extend program for farmers, ranchers Campaigning in sunny Minnesota on Wednesday, President Bush told several hundred farmers, ranchers and sportsmen that he plans to expand a program that pays them to keep environmentally sensitive lands out of production. The administration is strongly committed to expanding the nearly two-decade-old federal payments program to cover grasslands and additional wetlands, Bush said. Some 16 million acres of contracts under the Agriculture Department program would expire in 2007, and another 6 million acres would expire in 2008....
Researchers Postpone Chupacabra Dig The mystery remains: what is the bizarre Elmendorf Beast? It may take longer than expected to find out. Researchers put off their dig to exhume the strange animal for DNA testing, citing too much media attention. Elmendorf rancher Devin McAnally shot and buried the fanged, deer-looking creature several weeks ago. Now Whitley Strieber, the biologist heading up the project to test the animal’s remains, is asking to remain anonymous. But we've learned that the man behind the Communion Foundation makes his living in the spotlight....
Rodeo notebook: First-time ride is better than good for Mapston Ryan Mapston knew it was a good-scoring ride. "Just not that good,'' said the Geyser cowboy. Mapston scored 90 points aboard Burch's Rodeo saddle bronc horse Yellow Hair during Sunday's championship round of the Cheyenne Frontier Days. It matched a career-best for Mapston, who was also 90 points at San Antonio earlier this year....
Forest Service to retool fire fleet U.S. Forest Service officials say they will release a plan to modernize the nation's fleet of firefighting air tankers by the end of September. "We want to get through this wildfire season and understand how much of the fleet will be available and for how long," said Tony Kern, Forest Service assistant director of aviation management. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said that during a late July meeting in Washington, D.C., Forest Service officials told him that they are considering purchasing planes that the Navy plans to decommission before the end of the year. Rehberg said Forest Service officials told him that they may maintain ownership of the decommissioned planes and contract out with companies like Neptune to operate them. The Republican lawmaker is still pondering the notion. "I'd have to take a look at it," Rehberg said. "Traditionally I have been opposed to the government doing something that private companies can do, but I am not throwing cold water on any ideas at this point."....
Greenpeace: Police move in on protesters Law officers descended Wednesday on a logging protest in the Tongass National Forest where Greenpeace activists have chained themselves to bulldozers and set up roadblocks. Greenpeace protester Jeremy Paster said more than a dozen officers arrived Wednesday evening with a small crane and started removing the group's belongings. "They are removing all of our safety gear, food, all of our belongings," Paster said, adding that the arm of the crane was being waved near trees where protesters, including himself, were stationed. No arrests were immediately reported....
Alaska locals want a sliver of the forest He and other Gustavusans are among a growing number of conservationists advocating for "micrologging," or small-scale timbering, as an ecologically sound alternative to clear-cutting and constructing more logging roads at taxpayer expense. This summer, citizens in tiny Gustavus are challenging that paradigm. They are asking the Forest Service to radically change the way it does business. Instead of bidding for 10 million board feet of public timber that would have to be logged over the next 10 years, residents want the flexibility to harvest half a million board feet annually for 200 years....
End old growth wars: DeFazio's bill shifts focus to forest thinning DeFazio's bill, unveiled last week in Springfield, begins by recognizing the obvious: President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan has failed. The 1994 plan promised to preserve habitat for threatened and endangered species such as the northern spotted owl, while also providing a predictable harvest of 1 billion board feet of timber each year from public lands in Western Oregon and Washington. Neither promise has been kept. The plan's reliance on old growth timber sales for part of the predicted harvest volume represented a continuing threat to sensitive species. The resulting litigation has slowed timber sales to a trickle - last year, westside lands administered by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management yielded just 162 million board feet of timber. The Northwest Forest Plan has long been dead; after 10 years, it's time to bury the corpse....
Drought conditions prompt wood cutting ban Extreme dryness created by the hot weather and drought conditions has forest service officials banning all firewood cutting in the Carson ranger district. Forest rangers are temporarily banning all wood-cutting because trees are so dry there is a high risk a chainsaw could spark a wildfire....
Silverton skiing may expand The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will recommend for the first time that some unguided skiers be allowed on expert-only Silverton Mountain, ending more than three years of study of Colorado's first new ski area in decades. The bureau's final environmental impact statement, to be released Friday, will allow as many as 475 guided and unguided skiers a day - up from 80 - at the area above the struggling mining village of Silverton....
Japanese researchers produce trout from salmon Researchers at a Japanese university have succeeded for the first time in producing trout from salmon, in a method that promises hope for protecting endangered species. Associate Prof. Goro Yoshizaki and other researchers at Tokyo's University of Marine Sciences and Technology succeeded in the method by injecting primordal germ cells (PGCs), which can grow into either sperm or eggs, from a rainbow trout into the body of a male yamame (landlocked salmon). When these cells developed into sperm and were inserted into the normal eggs of rainbow trout, rainbow trout were born. The successful experiment was reported in the science journal "Nature."....
Group hails state for fighting effort to protect grouse A business group has cheered Colorado's opposition to listing the sage grouse as an endangered species. "There's almost no limit to economic damage that could be caused by a sage grouse listing," said Jim Sims, executive director of Partnership for the West. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed the move, but Colorado officials say the birds' numbers are holding steady or increasing....
Judge protects desert tortoise habitat in California A federal judge struck down permits issued by the Bush administration that allowed cattle grazing and off-road vehicles in a desert tortoise habitat in California, saying they violated the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston ruled Tuesday that the Department of Interior hadn't done enough to protect the tortoise on 4.1 million acres set aside for its recovery in the California desert. "The congressional intent in enacting the ESA was clear: Critical habitat exists to promote the recovery and survival of listed species," Illston said. "Conservation means more than survival; it means recovery."....
Hundreds of dead birds wash up on the Oregon coast However in the last few days, beachgoers have found hundreds of dead birds, scattered among the water carved sand dunes. "Oh my gosh, there is definitely a lot of them," said on visitor. "My daughters were tearful about it. It is very sad." The birds that are washing up on the coast are 'Common Murres,' but they have a somewhat uncommon migration....
Editorial: Of water, birds and of death Chase Lake is one of the sites where a disturbing mystery has taken place. Chase Lake is special because of the thousands and thousands of pelicans who live there every year. Their rookeries used to be on the island in the lake. When that filled, the birds spread to the lake's edge. In the springtime, when everything is hatching and flowering, the lake is alive with pelicans. Then, the trouble came this spring. The pelicans abandoned their rookeries at just the wrong time and thousands of baby pelicans died. Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, biologists and others concerned are looking for the reason the pelicans left their nests and moved to different areas....
Sheep Rancher Beats Energy Company A jury found Williams Production guilty on all counts and awarded a Rifle-area sheep rancher and property owner more than $4 million in unpaid natural-gas royalties. The five-woman and one-man jury returned the verdict late Monday night, after receiving the case that afternoon and hearing testimony all last week. They ruled Williams, one of the largest gas operators in Garfield County, was guilty of breach of contract, violated the Consumer Protection Act and acted in bad faith. William Clough, an 85-year-old, third-generation sheep rancher, filed the suit. He claimed Williams and Barrett Resources, which merged with the Williams Cos. in 2001, had not paid him all agreed-upon royalties over an eight-year period....
Proposal would let BLM use more money from land sales in West The Bush administration wants to let the Bureau of Land Management use more of the profits from public land sales in the West. The proposal would let the BLM designate profits from the sale of lands that it has identified for disposal since July 25, 2000. Federal law now requires the profits to be deposited into the U.S. treasury. Twenty percent of sale proceeds would be directed back to the BLM to cover administrative expenses, 20 percent would be earmarked for conservation projects, and 60 percent would be used to buy environmentally sensitive land from private ownership....
State has won war against invasive weed tansy ragwort Invading plant species, an ecological problem once relegated to the back burner, have surged to the forefront of environmental conversations, one expert says, and a successful 25-year fight against one weed in the Northwest may hold valuable lessons for dealing with an increasing onslaught of other invasive species. The war against tansy ragwort in Oregon has essentially been won, says Peter McEvoy, a professor of ecology at Oregon State University, who spoke Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Portland....
Bear River Water Off-limits for 90 Farmers The Bear River has run out of water for 90 Cache Valley farmers. The state Division of Water Rights has told them to stop pumping Bear River water because the drought has depleted their irrigation shares. Jerry D. Olds is state engineer. One of his assistants says he's gotten advice from the state attorney general and can seek temporary restraining orders against any farmers who fail to stop pumping. But the state engineer's office expects the majority of the farmers will cooperate....
Bush vows to extend program for farmers, ranchers Campaigning in sunny Minnesota on Wednesday, President Bush told several hundred farmers, ranchers and sportsmen that he plans to expand a program that pays them to keep environmentally sensitive lands out of production. The administration is strongly committed to expanding the nearly two-decade-old federal payments program to cover grasslands and additional wetlands, Bush said. Some 16 million acres of contracts under the Agriculture Department program would expire in 2007, and another 6 million acres would expire in 2008....
Researchers Postpone Chupacabra Dig The mystery remains: what is the bizarre Elmendorf Beast? It may take longer than expected to find out. Researchers put off their dig to exhume the strange animal for DNA testing, citing too much media attention. Elmendorf rancher Devin McAnally shot and buried the fanged, deer-looking creature several weeks ago. Now Whitley Strieber, the biologist heading up the project to test the animal’s remains, is asking to remain anonymous. But we've learned that the man behind the Communion Foundation makes his living in the spotlight....
Rodeo notebook: First-time ride is better than good for Mapston Ryan Mapston knew it was a good-scoring ride. "Just not that good,'' said the Geyser cowboy. Mapston scored 90 points aboard Burch's Rodeo saddle bronc horse Yellow Hair during Sunday's championship round of the Cheyenne Frontier Days. It matched a career-best for Mapston, who was also 90 points at San Antonio earlier this year....
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
DIAMOND BAR CATTLE COMPANY
Prosecutors call rancher's spurs deadly weapons
AP - A southern New Mexico rancher's horse and spurs have become more than just cowboy gear in a federal criminal case accusing him of assaulting U.S. Forest Service employees helping to impound his cattle.
At an arraignment here Tuesday, prosecutors upgraded assault charges against 43-year-old Kit Laney to include assault with a deadly weapon.
The alleged deadly weapons? Laney's horse, spurs and the horse reins.
It comes after Laney's arrest March 14 during a roundup of cattle belonging to him and his ex-wife, Sherry Farr, on the Gila National Forest.
Authorities say he threatened to trample federal officers with his horse and tried to release some of the impounded livestock. He was originally charged with five counts of assault on federal officers and three counts of obstruction of justice.
Laney and Farr did not have a permit to graze the cattle.
Last December, a federal judge awarded the Forest Service grazing fees and damages after finding the couple in contempt of court for grazing cattle on allotments in violation of the earlier court rulings. The judge ordered the cattle removed.
Laney and Farr contended the roundup was illegal and that the impoundment was potentially a criminal offense. Laney has said he had water and grazing rights to the area before the Forest Service took over operations on the property.
More than 450 head of Laneys' cattle were sold at auction last month for about $211,000. He was sent a bill for an additional $250,000 by the federal government for time and expense of the roundup of his cattle.
Laney, who has pleaded not guilty to the enhanced charges, plans to represent himself and has waived his right to a jury trial.
He will argue his case before U.S. District Judge John Conway on Sept. 14 in Albuquerque.
Charges upgraded
The five-count "superceding" indictment alleges Laney used his horse, spurs and reins to "assault or interfere with federal officers and employees" while they were rounding up the rancher's cattle on his Diamond Bar allotment in the Gila National Forest earlier this year.
"Apparently, (federal officials) were not happy that (Laney) hasn't accepted the Justice Department's offer of five months' prison and five months' house arrest," rancher Laura Schneberger of Winston wrote in an e-mail message.
"He admits to struggling when pepper was sprayed, which should have gotten him, at the most, charged with resisting arrest and possibly interfering with a court order," she added....
Prosecutors call rancher's spurs deadly weapons
AP - A southern New Mexico rancher's horse and spurs have become more than just cowboy gear in a federal criminal case accusing him of assaulting U.S. Forest Service employees helping to impound his cattle.
At an arraignment here Tuesday, prosecutors upgraded assault charges against 43-year-old Kit Laney to include assault with a deadly weapon.
The alleged deadly weapons? Laney's horse, spurs and the horse reins.
It comes after Laney's arrest March 14 during a roundup of cattle belonging to him and his ex-wife, Sherry Farr, on the Gila National Forest.
Authorities say he threatened to trample federal officers with his horse and tried to release some of the impounded livestock. He was originally charged with five counts of assault on federal officers and three counts of obstruction of justice.
Laney and Farr did not have a permit to graze the cattle.
Last December, a federal judge awarded the Forest Service grazing fees and damages after finding the couple in contempt of court for grazing cattle on allotments in violation of the earlier court rulings. The judge ordered the cattle removed.
Laney and Farr contended the roundup was illegal and that the impoundment was potentially a criminal offense. Laney has said he had water and grazing rights to the area before the Forest Service took over operations on the property.
More than 450 head of Laneys' cattle were sold at auction last month for about $211,000. He was sent a bill for an additional $250,000 by the federal government for time and expense of the roundup of his cattle.
Laney, who has pleaded not guilty to the enhanced charges, plans to represent himself and has waived his right to a jury trial.
He will argue his case before U.S. District Judge John Conway on Sept. 14 in Albuquerque.
Charges upgraded
The five-count "superceding" indictment alleges Laney used his horse, spurs and reins to "assault or interfere with federal officers and employees" while they were rounding up the rancher's cattle on his Diamond Bar allotment in the Gila National Forest earlier this year.
"Apparently, (federal officials) were not happy that (Laney) hasn't accepted the Justice Department's offer of five months' prison and five months' house arrest," rancher Laura Schneberger of Winston wrote in an e-mail message.
"He admits to struggling when pepper was sprayed, which should have gotten him, at the most, charged with resisting arrest and possibly interfering with a court order," she added....
NEWS ROUNDUP
Judge stops logging in old growth reserves that burned in Biscuit fire A federal judge blocked logging in old growth forest reserves burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire until the U.S. Forest Service marks dead trees that must be left standing for wildlife, rather than relying on timber companies to do their work. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan issued a preliminary injunction blocking logging on five timber sales offered by the Siskiyou National Forest based on claims by environmental groups that the Forest Service's failure to mark the trees violates the National Forest Management Act. The law requires timber sales be marked by employees of the Secretary of Agriculture, to assure the work is done by someone with no financial interest in the outcome....
Greenpeace Activists Block Road to Logging Greenpeace activists chained themselves to bulldozers and set up roadblocks near timber operations in the Tongass National Forest Tuesday to protest a plan they said would weaken logging restrictions across the country. Activists staged the blockade in opposition to a recent Bush administration proposal to let governors decide whether to seek protection of roadless national forest land....
Closure of escape route worries forest residents Over the past 24 years, the DeLuca family has twice escaped wildfires by driving a short but jaw-rattling dirt road that slices through the San Bernardino National Forest. Earlier this summer, though, U.S. Forest Service employees barricaded the 3.5-mile road that many of the DeLucas' neighbors also have used to slip away to safety. "People are so upset, they tried to rip the gate down,' said Joe DeLuca, 25, whose family moved to the community shortly before the 1980 Panorama Fire. "People aren't happy because this is the quickest, most sensible way out.'....
Climate change could doom Alaska's tundra In the next 100 years, Alaska will experience a massive loss of its historic tundra, as global warming allows these vast regions of cold, dry, lands to support forests and other vegetation that will dramatically alter native ecosystems, an Oregon State University researcher said today. Polar regions such as Alaska will be among the first to illustrate the profound impacts of climate change, said Dominique Bachelet, an associate professor in the OSU Department of Bioengineering and expert on the effects of climate change on terrestrial vegetation. She spoke at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Bachelet and her colleagues at OSU and the U.S. Forest Service have developed the Dynamic Global Vegetation Model MC1, an improved way of predicting what certain climate scenarios will mean in terms in of vegetation growth, plant and soil processes, carbon storage or emissions, forest fire, and other important ecological effects....
Column: Bush breaks environmental promise Immediately after the election, conservative Republican U.S. Rep. David Dreier asked Schwarzenegger, at the behest of the White House, to abandon support for the Framework. Schwarzenegger refused, but noted that if changes to the Framework were warranted by new information or science, the Framework should be modified by the same thoughtful, inclusive stakeholder process that had resulted in the original plan. This seemed to appease the White House. Bush senior political adviser Karl Rove promised that no federal action would be taken on Framework protections, especially logging, without extensive discussions with the state and all stakeholders....
Column: Once Burned, Twice Shy The more I learn about the Forest Service's approach to the aftermath of the Biscuit fire in Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest, the greater my sense that history is about to repeat itself. Some people might wonder why a 55-year-old man living in a cabin surrounded by Montana's Bitterroot National Forest would have such a keen interest in a massive logging plan on another state's national forest. The answer: I lived through the Bitterroot fires of 2000, when lightning and human-caused fires burned over 300,000 acres, including much of the land surrounding my home....
Column: Wasting the West Twenty years ago, much of the public land around the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona resembled the barren and desolate landscape found in a Sub-Saharan desert. For years, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had granted grazing permits to ranchers for thousands of acres of fragile land along the San Pedro. At any given time 10,000 cows were grazing in the area, trampling the river’s banks and causing it to widen out and become precariously shallow. The cows also devoured native grasses and shrubs near the river, transforming the once-healthy landscape to little more than a vista of dry earth, lumps of cow pies and sparse vegetation....
Underground forest lab slated The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forestry Sciences Laboratory at Michigan Tech University is planning to build an underground observatory from which researchers and students will be able to observe, study and handle the root systems of forest life. The natural forest corridor will consist of two tunnels about eight feet underground and running about 75 feet from the Forest Service building into an adjacent woodlot. Through windows in the trench, researchers will be able to examine the underground botanical garden around them....
State: Bird numbers are nothing to grouse about Colorado joined a number of other Western states in notifying federal wildlife officials Tuesday that the greater sage grouse doesn't need endangered-species protection. Colorado Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Russell George wrote to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: "The species is showing signs of vigor not seen for decades in Colorado. Furthermore, the state is intensifying its efforts to conserve this species and will continue to do so." Tom Remington, state Division of Wildlife terrestrial section manager, said, "The numbers are holding steady and even increasing in some areas....
Huge market for forest moss raises concerns A huge, largely underground industry has been built on the moss that drapes some forest trees, raising ecological concerns, questions about export of potentially invasive species, and other issues that have scientists, land managers and businesses unsure about how to monitor, regulate or control this market amid so many uncertainties. A report on this trade in forest moss -- which is sometimes legal, often on the black market - was made today by a botanist from Oregon State University, speaking at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America....
Conservationists warn they will sue to protect Pacific fisher Conservationists warned the federal government Tuesday they plan to sue to force an endangered species listing for the Pacific fisher, a cousin of the weasel that hunts in old growth forests of the West. The Center for Biological Diversity and five other conservation groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision last April that the fisher warranted Endangered Species Act protection, but was precluded by more pressing matters....
Man fined for killing wolf last year A Lewiston man is being fined 20-thousand dollars for killing a wolf near Elk River last year. Robin Shafer has also had his hunting privileges revoked for one year. In addition, Judge Mikel Williams placed the 46-year-old on probation for one year....
County sued for mine OK Santa Clarita has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County claiming that county officials failed to analyze properly the environmental impacts of the massive sand and gravel mine proposed for Soledad Canyon. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, follows the county Board of Supervisor's decision in June to approve a surface-mining permit to allow cement giant Cemex Inc. to mine up to 56 million tons of sand and gravel in the area....
Yosemite delays cost millions The court-ordered delay in several Yosemite Valley projects has cost the National Park Service several million dollars, a total that is sure to grow until the court releases its stay, according to an Interior Department official. Fifteen projects, with a price tag of $105 million, were under way in Yosemite National Park this spring when U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii in Fresno stopped them. He said the park service had not effectively considered their effect on the Merced River, which runs through the valley....
Governor backs winter drilling Gov. Dave Freudenthal has given his conditional support to allowing year-round drilling for natural gas on the Pinedale Anticline in western Wyoming. Freudenthal said his support is contingent upon strong measures to reduce the impact of the winter drilling by Questar Corp. to the area's residents, air, wildlife and water....
BLM rejects state's lease protest The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Wyoming office reportedly found no merit in Gov. Dave Freudenthal's protest of 12 federal lease parcels in the Pinedale Anticline, but it refused to release its decision to the public. Officially, the BLM has made no decision, said BLM spokeswoman Cindy Wertz. But in a phone interview Tuesday evening, Gov. Dave Freudenthal confirmed that he spoke with BLM Director Bob Bennett and that Bennett's answer to his protest was "no."....
Wild horse roundups to begin Federal officials plan to round up approximately 140 wild horses in central Wyoming later this month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. BLM Worland Field Manager Bill Hill said the agency is proposing to gather the excess wild horses from the BLM's Fifteenmile Wild Horse Herd Management Area (HMA). The proposal is to reduce the population from approximately 210 horses to about 70 horses within the HMA....
BLM director honors PGE's decision to breach dams in the Sandy River Basin For nearly a century, the final mile of the Little Sandy River has reverted to a dry bed of rocks and sand during the summer months. A concrete dam built in 1912 diverts the entire flow, once used by migrating steelhead, coho and chinook salmon, onto a raised aqueduct. The water flows through the forested canyon a few dozen yards above the dry pebbles of its old, natural route, and into Portland General Electric turbines that power roughly 22,000 homes in Portland. The utility's decision to breach the dam and a similar structure on the Sandy River, and to donate 1,500 acres to habitat restoration, was praised Tuesday by Bureau of Land Management director Kathleen Clarke....
Reid asks BLM to phase in mining claim fee increase Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is asking the Bureau of Land Management to stretch a planned 25 percent fee increase over the next five years to soften the blow of higher mining fees. Reid, D-Nev., said incremental increases of 5 percent per year would cushion the blow and let miners budget "over a reasonable amount of time."....
BLM WORKER DIES IN ATV ACCIDENT A Bureau of Land Management worker has died in an ATV accident near "South Shale" Ridge. 62-year old Peter Larson died Monday, during a land health assessment in "Coon Hollow," 20 miles north of Grand Junction. The accident was in steep, rocky terrain. He was wearing a helmet and safety equipment. BLM staffers started looking for Larson when he failed to check in at the end of the day....
Marine protection program revived In a decision cheered by environmentalists and marine biologists, the Schwarzenegger administration has decided to restart plans to create the nation's first network of protected marine reserves off California's coast, eight months after shutting the project down for lack of money. The first area scheduled to have specific maps for such ``no-fishing zones'' -- with a draft plan now due out by March 2006 -- will be the central coast, Chrisman added, which is generally described as the area from San Francisco to Hearst Castle....
Column: Where Environmentalists Go Wrong Now of course being pro-business is a positive attribute. And being pro-business in no way means also being anti-environment. The fact is America is one of, if not the most, environmentally friendly nations on earth. And many businesses have done a good job of preserving our natural beauty and treasures. Of course, environmental extremists will never admit to this and certainly will never be heard acknowledging that things are actually getting better for America’s forests. It is not in their interest to announce any progress or positive stories....
A Study Finds Mercury Levels in Fish Exceed U.S. Standards More than half the fish in the nation's lakes and reservoirs have levels of mercury that exceed government standards for women of child-bearing age and children, according to an environmental coalition's analysis of a survey by the Environmental Protection Agency. A breakdown of the survey findings from the first two years of a four-year study was the basis of the report on Tuesday by Clear the Air, a coalition that is pressing the agency to set more stringent mercury emission standards for coal-fired power plants than those the Bush administration has proposed....
Turning Genetically Engineered Trees Into Toxic Avengers Last summer, on the site of 35 former hat factories where toxic mercury was once used to cure pelts, city officials in Danbury, Conn., deployed a futuristic weapon: 160 Eastern cottonwoods. Dr. Richard Meagher, a professor of genetics at the University of Georgia, genetically engineered the trees to extract mercury from the soil, store it without being harmed, convert it to a less toxic form of mercury and release it into the air. It was one of two dozen proposals Dr. Meagher has submitted to various agencies over two decades for engineering trees to soak up chemicals from contaminated soil....
U.S. move fuels fears over dune plant At the California desert's most popular off-roading area, the Bush administration on Tuesday reduced by 60 percent the amount of land considered critical for the survival of a threatened plant. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped most off-roading areas from its final habitat designation, thus removing these areas from potential closures due to habitat impact. Instead, the agency placed most of the habitat in a wilderness area of the 160,000-acre Imperial Sand Dunes that already bans motorized vehicles....
Water rights battle brews over aging flume For almost a century, a man-made, rock-and-mortar flume has sent water gushing down to the Banning area and away from the Coachella Valley. It has created an agricultural paradise on the Banning Bench and water for homes in the flatlands. Now, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs says the diverted water is rightfully theirs. The tribe's water rights were recognized long before the flume when the U.S. government created the reservation, said attorney Art Bunce. The Agua Caliente want the water's natural course restored so it will flow through their reservation and on to the Salton Sea....
Utah governor declares 21 counties drought disaster areas Gov. Olene Walker on Tuesday declared most of the state of Utah a disaster area because of drought, and is seeking the same designation from the federal government. The state designation, which opens up 21 counties for consideration of federal financial aid, follows six consecutive years of below average rain fall and a projected $133 million negative impact on Utah's agricultural economy this year....
Federal court decision in Arizona seen as threat to South Dakota hunting system federal court decision in Arizona recently could strengthen the effort of some West River landowners to force the state Game, Fish & Parks Commission to authorize more big-game licenses for nonresident hunters. Elm Springs rancher Pat Trask, a landowner-rights advocate who believes that state nonresident hunting license quotas are unconstitutional, said Tuesday that the Arizona case would be valuable if he and other landowners decided to challenge the GF&P regulations in court. Trask said he was laying the legal groundwork for such a challenge....
Rancher's kill rouses regional legend As part of the ongoing effort to cover all roaming panther sightings, lost snake reports and other wild animal news, I'm here to report that the Texas Devil Dog will be dug up today. The Devil Dog began haunting Texas TV newscasts last week. A San Antonio TV station showed photos of a small, fanged, hairless, blue creature shot and killed in rural Bexar County. She might be some weird little dog, wildlife experts said. Or a mangy coyote. Or an exotic deer. Or -- as the TV report headlined -- "Chupacabra?"....
Wyo looks for brucellosis source Several Campbell County ranching families will bear the expense of a cattle quarantine while investigators search for the source of an apparent new brucellosis outbreak linked to Wyoming cattle. State officials worried Monday the new case will hamper the state's efforts to regain its lost federal brucellosis-free status and will hurt Wyoming cattle producers. It could also impact the prices Wyoming producers receive for their beef over the long run....
Cargill says it won't slaughter R-CALF cattle One of the country's largest meat packers says it won't knowingly process cattle owned by members of an American lobby group fighting to keep Canadian beef out of the U.S., a move sought by Alberta ranchers. Cargill faced a blockade by ranchers and feedlot operators two weeks ago, when its trucks tried to haul away cattle that the protesters believed were owned by Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA). Cargill spokesman Rick Meijer says the company will rely on feedlot operators and ranchers to alert them to which cattle are owned by R-CALF....
Buck Taylor turns his love for western history into art Buck Taylor loves history, in fact he has been an actor for many years playing in a number of movies and television programs such as Newly O'Brian on "Gunsmoke." But, he also loves to paint using watercolors. Many of his watercolor paintings focus on the Old West as well as the modern working cowboy....
Hooked on barbed wire? It is a simple reproduction of nature, yet considered to be an invention of genius requiring numerous patents. It connected points while disorienting people and animals. It is treacherous, yet considered a thing of beauty and is housed in museums. If you have not guessed what it is, these questions might give it away: What was rumored to be a northern plot to wipe out cattle, and was thought to be the work of the devil? Barbed Wire. Yes, barbwire fencing, that is now taken for granted, was controversial in its early years....
It's All Trew: Farm life: So many chicks, so little spare time We used a hatchery in Elk City, Okla., because it was close to Perryton and featured fast delivery by mail. Mother ordered the number, breed and sex of chicks desired, to be delivered on a chosen date. Once the order was sent we cleaned the chicken houses making ready for chick delivery. The chicks came in flat cardboard boxes some 36x36x8 inches. Each was divided into four compartments holding a dozen chicks each. They came by U.S. Mail leaving every rural post office a stinking, cheeping repository for chicks waiting for owner pickup. Like most cute babies, fluffy chicks grow up to be adults. A large flock of grown chickens can create a lot of litter. The most dreaded words I heard as a young boy was, "Your mother says the chicken houses need to be cleaned out."....
Judge stops logging in old growth reserves that burned in Biscuit fire A federal judge blocked logging in old growth forest reserves burned by the 2002 Biscuit fire until the U.S. Forest Service marks dead trees that must be left standing for wildlife, rather than relying on timber companies to do their work. U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan issued a preliminary injunction blocking logging on five timber sales offered by the Siskiyou National Forest based on claims by environmental groups that the Forest Service's failure to mark the trees violates the National Forest Management Act. The law requires timber sales be marked by employees of the Secretary of Agriculture, to assure the work is done by someone with no financial interest in the outcome....
Greenpeace Activists Block Road to Logging Greenpeace activists chained themselves to bulldozers and set up roadblocks near timber operations in the Tongass National Forest Tuesday to protest a plan they said would weaken logging restrictions across the country. Activists staged the blockade in opposition to a recent Bush administration proposal to let governors decide whether to seek protection of roadless national forest land....
Closure of escape route worries forest residents Over the past 24 years, the DeLuca family has twice escaped wildfires by driving a short but jaw-rattling dirt road that slices through the San Bernardino National Forest. Earlier this summer, though, U.S. Forest Service employees barricaded the 3.5-mile road that many of the DeLucas' neighbors also have used to slip away to safety. "People are so upset, they tried to rip the gate down,' said Joe DeLuca, 25, whose family moved to the community shortly before the 1980 Panorama Fire. "People aren't happy because this is the quickest, most sensible way out.'....
Climate change could doom Alaska's tundra In the next 100 years, Alaska will experience a massive loss of its historic tundra, as global warming allows these vast regions of cold, dry, lands to support forests and other vegetation that will dramatically alter native ecosystems, an Oregon State University researcher said today. Polar regions such as Alaska will be among the first to illustrate the profound impacts of climate change, said Dominique Bachelet, an associate professor in the OSU Department of Bioengineering and expert on the effects of climate change on terrestrial vegetation. She spoke at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. Bachelet and her colleagues at OSU and the U.S. Forest Service have developed the Dynamic Global Vegetation Model MC1, an improved way of predicting what certain climate scenarios will mean in terms in of vegetation growth, plant and soil processes, carbon storage or emissions, forest fire, and other important ecological effects....
Column: Bush breaks environmental promise Immediately after the election, conservative Republican U.S. Rep. David Dreier asked Schwarzenegger, at the behest of the White House, to abandon support for the Framework. Schwarzenegger refused, but noted that if changes to the Framework were warranted by new information or science, the Framework should be modified by the same thoughtful, inclusive stakeholder process that had resulted in the original plan. This seemed to appease the White House. Bush senior political adviser Karl Rove promised that no federal action would be taken on Framework protections, especially logging, without extensive discussions with the state and all stakeholders....
Column: Once Burned, Twice Shy The more I learn about the Forest Service's approach to the aftermath of the Biscuit fire in Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest, the greater my sense that history is about to repeat itself. Some people might wonder why a 55-year-old man living in a cabin surrounded by Montana's Bitterroot National Forest would have such a keen interest in a massive logging plan on another state's national forest. The answer: I lived through the Bitterroot fires of 2000, when lightning and human-caused fires burned over 300,000 acres, including much of the land surrounding my home....
Column: Wasting the West Twenty years ago, much of the public land around the San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona resembled the barren and desolate landscape found in a Sub-Saharan desert. For years, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had granted grazing permits to ranchers for thousands of acres of fragile land along the San Pedro. At any given time 10,000 cows were grazing in the area, trampling the river’s banks and causing it to widen out and become precariously shallow. The cows also devoured native grasses and shrubs near the river, transforming the once-healthy landscape to little more than a vista of dry earth, lumps of cow pies and sparse vegetation....
Underground forest lab slated The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forestry Sciences Laboratory at Michigan Tech University is planning to build an underground observatory from which researchers and students will be able to observe, study and handle the root systems of forest life. The natural forest corridor will consist of two tunnels about eight feet underground and running about 75 feet from the Forest Service building into an adjacent woodlot. Through windows in the trench, researchers will be able to examine the underground botanical garden around them....
State: Bird numbers are nothing to grouse about Colorado joined a number of other Western states in notifying federal wildlife officials Tuesday that the greater sage grouse doesn't need endangered-species protection. Colorado Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Russell George wrote to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: "The species is showing signs of vigor not seen for decades in Colorado. Furthermore, the state is intensifying its efforts to conserve this species and will continue to do so." Tom Remington, state Division of Wildlife terrestrial section manager, said, "The numbers are holding steady and even increasing in some areas....
Huge market for forest moss raises concerns A huge, largely underground industry has been built on the moss that drapes some forest trees, raising ecological concerns, questions about export of potentially invasive species, and other issues that have scientists, land managers and businesses unsure about how to monitor, regulate or control this market amid so many uncertainties. A report on this trade in forest moss -- which is sometimes legal, often on the black market - was made today by a botanist from Oregon State University, speaking at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America....
Conservationists warn they will sue to protect Pacific fisher Conservationists warned the federal government Tuesday they plan to sue to force an endangered species listing for the Pacific fisher, a cousin of the weasel that hunts in old growth forests of the West. The Center for Biological Diversity and five other conservation groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision last April that the fisher warranted Endangered Species Act protection, but was precluded by more pressing matters....
Man fined for killing wolf last year A Lewiston man is being fined 20-thousand dollars for killing a wolf near Elk River last year. Robin Shafer has also had his hunting privileges revoked for one year. In addition, Judge Mikel Williams placed the 46-year-old on probation for one year....
County sued for mine OK Santa Clarita has filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County claiming that county officials failed to analyze properly the environmental impacts of the massive sand and gravel mine proposed for Soledad Canyon. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, follows the county Board of Supervisor's decision in June to approve a surface-mining permit to allow cement giant Cemex Inc. to mine up to 56 million tons of sand and gravel in the area....
Yosemite delays cost millions The court-ordered delay in several Yosemite Valley projects has cost the National Park Service several million dollars, a total that is sure to grow until the court releases its stay, according to an Interior Department official. Fifteen projects, with a price tag of $105 million, were under way in Yosemite National Park this spring when U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii in Fresno stopped them. He said the park service had not effectively considered their effect on the Merced River, which runs through the valley....
Governor backs winter drilling Gov. Dave Freudenthal has given his conditional support to allowing year-round drilling for natural gas on the Pinedale Anticline in western Wyoming. Freudenthal said his support is contingent upon strong measures to reduce the impact of the winter drilling by Questar Corp. to the area's residents, air, wildlife and water....
BLM rejects state's lease protest The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Wyoming office reportedly found no merit in Gov. Dave Freudenthal's protest of 12 federal lease parcels in the Pinedale Anticline, but it refused to release its decision to the public. Officially, the BLM has made no decision, said BLM spokeswoman Cindy Wertz. But in a phone interview Tuesday evening, Gov. Dave Freudenthal confirmed that he spoke with BLM Director Bob Bennett and that Bennett's answer to his protest was "no."....
Wild horse roundups to begin Federal officials plan to round up approximately 140 wild horses in central Wyoming later this month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. BLM Worland Field Manager Bill Hill said the agency is proposing to gather the excess wild horses from the BLM's Fifteenmile Wild Horse Herd Management Area (HMA). The proposal is to reduce the population from approximately 210 horses to about 70 horses within the HMA....
BLM director honors PGE's decision to breach dams in the Sandy River Basin For nearly a century, the final mile of the Little Sandy River has reverted to a dry bed of rocks and sand during the summer months. A concrete dam built in 1912 diverts the entire flow, once used by migrating steelhead, coho and chinook salmon, onto a raised aqueduct. The water flows through the forested canyon a few dozen yards above the dry pebbles of its old, natural route, and into Portland General Electric turbines that power roughly 22,000 homes in Portland. The utility's decision to breach the dam and a similar structure on the Sandy River, and to donate 1,500 acres to habitat restoration, was praised Tuesday by Bureau of Land Management director Kathleen Clarke....
Reid asks BLM to phase in mining claim fee increase Nevada Sen. Harry Reid is asking the Bureau of Land Management to stretch a planned 25 percent fee increase over the next five years to soften the blow of higher mining fees. Reid, D-Nev., said incremental increases of 5 percent per year would cushion the blow and let miners budget "over a reasonable amount of time."....
BLM WORKER DIES IN ATV ACCIDENT A Bureau of Land Management worker has died in an ATV accident near "South Shale" Ridge. 62-year old Peter Larson died Monday, during a land health assessment in "Coon Hollow," 20 miles north of Grand Junction. The accident was in steep, rocky terrain. He was wearing a helmet and safety equipment. BLM staffers started looking for Larson when he failed to check in at the end of the day....
Marine protection program revived In a decision cheered by environmentalists and marine biologists, the Schwarzenegger administration has decided to restart plans to create the nation's first network of protected marine reserves off California's coast, eight months after shutting the project down for lack of money. The first area scheduled to have specific maps for such ``no-fishing zones'' -- with a draft plan now due out by March 2006 -- will be the central coast, Chrisman added, which is generally described as the area from San Francisco to Hearst Castle....
Column: Where Environmentalists Go Wrong Now of course being pro-business is a positive attribute. And being pro-business in no way means also being anti-environment. The fact is America is one of, if not the most, environmentally friendly nations on earth. And many businesses have done a good job of preserving our natural beauty and treasures. Of course, environmental extremists will never admit to this and certainly will never be heard acknowledging that things are actually getting better for America’s forests. It is not in their interest to announce any progress or positive stories....
A Study Finds Mercury Levels in Fish Exceed U.S. Standards More than half the fish in the nation's lakes and reservoirs have levels of mercury that exceed government standards for women of child-bearing age and children, according to an environmental coalition's analysis of a survey by the Environmental Protection Agency. A breakdown of the survey findings from the first two years of a four-year study was the basis of the report on Tuesday by Clear the Air, a coalition that is pressing the agency to set more stringent mercury emission standards for coal-fired power plants than those the Bush administration has proposed....
Turning Genetically Engineered Trees Into Toxic Avengers Last summer, on the site of 35 former hat factories where toxic mercury was once used to cure pelts, city officials in Danbury, Conn., deployed a futuristic weapon: 160 Eastern cottonwoods. Dr. Richard Meagher, a professor of genetics at the University of Georgia, genetically engineered the trees to extract mercury from the soil, store it without being harmed, convert it to a less toxic form of mercury and release it into the air. It was one of two dozen proposals Dr. Meagher has submitted to various agencies over two decades for engineering trees to soak up chemicals from contaminated soil....
U.S. move fuels fears over dune plant At the California desert's most popular off-roading area, the Bush administration on Tuesday reduced by 60 percent the amount of land considered critical for the survival of a threatened plant. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped most off-roading areas from its final habitat designation, thus removing these areas from potential closures due to habitat impact. Instead, the agency placed most of the habitat in a wilderness area of the 160,000-acre Imperial Sand Dunes that already bans motorized vehicles....
Water rights battle brews over aging flume For almost a century, a man-made, rock-and-mortar flume has sent water gushing down to the Banning area and away from the Coachella Valley. It has created an agricultural paradise on the Banning Bench and water for homes in the flatlands. Now, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs says the diverted water is rightfully theirs. The tribe's water rights were recognized long before the flume when the U.S. government created the reservation, said attorney Art Bunce. The Agua Caliente want the water's natural course restored so it will flow through their reservation and on to the Salton Sea....
Utah governor declares 21 counties drought disaster areas Gov. Olene Walker on Tuesday declared most of the state of Utah a disaster area because of drought, and is seeking the same designation from the federal government. The state designation, which opens up 21 counties for consideration of federal financial aid, follows six consecutive years of below average rain fall and a projected $133 million negative impact on Utah's agricultural economy this year....
Federal court decision in Arizona seen as threat to South Dakota hunting system federal court decision in Arizona recently could strengthen the effort of some West River landowners to force the state Game, Fish & Parks Commission to authorize more big-game licenses for nonresident hunters. Elm Springs rancher Pat Trask, a landowner-rights advocate who believes that state nonresident hunting license quotas are unconstitutional, said Tuesday that the Arizona case would be valuable if he and other landowners decided to challenge the GF&P regulations in court. Trask said he was laying the legal groundwork for such a challenge....
Rancher's kill rouses regional legend As part of the ongoing effort to cover all roaming panther sightings, lost snake reports and other wild animal news, I'm here to report that the Texas Devil Dog will be dug up today. The Devil Dog began haunting Texas TV newscasts last week. A San Antonio TV station showed photos of a small, fanged, hairless, blue creature shot and killed in rural Bexar County. She might be some weird little dog, wildlife experts said. Or a mangy coyote. Or an exotic deer. Or -- as the TV report headlined -- "Chupacabra?"....
Wyo looks for brucellosis source Several Campbell County ranching families will bear the expense of a cattle quarantine while investigators search for the source of an apparent new brucellosis outbreak linked to Wyoming cattle. State officials worried Monday the new case will hamper the state's efforts to regain its lost federal brucellosis-free status and will hurt Wyoming cattle producers. It could also impact the prices Wyoming producers receive for their beef over the long run....
Cargill says it won't slaughter R-CALF cattle One of the country's largest meat packers says it won't knowingly process cattle owned by members of an American lobby group fighting to keep Canadian beef out of the U.S., a move sought by Alberta ranchers. Cargill faced a blockade by ranchers and feedlot operators two weeks ago, when its trucks tried to haul away cattle that the protesters believed were owned by Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA). Cargill spokesman Rick Meijer says the company will rely on feedlot operators and ranchers to alert them to which cattle are owned by R-CALF....
Buck Taylor turns his love for western history into art Buck Taylor loves history, in fact he has been an actor for many years playing in a number of movies and television programs such as Newly O'Brian on "Gunsmoke." But, he also loves to paint using watercolors. Many of his watercolor paintings focus on the Old West as well as the modern working cowboy....
Hooked on barbed wire? It is a simple reproduction of nature, yet considered to be an invention of genius requiring numerous patents. It connected points while disorienting people and animals. It is treacherous, yet considered a thing of beauty and is housed in museums. If you have not guessed what it is, these questions might give it away: What was rumored to be a northern plot to wipe out cattle, and was thought to be the work of the devil? Barbed Wire. Yes, barbwire fencing, that is now taken for granted, was controversial in its early years....
It's All Trew: Farm life: So many chicks, so little spare time We used a hatchery in Elk City, Okla., because it was close to Perryton and featured fast delivery by mail. Mother ordered the number, breed and sex of chicks desired, to be delivered on a chosen date. Once the order was sent we cleaned the chicken houses making ready for chick delivery. The chicks came in flat cardboard boxes some 36x36x8 inches. Each was divided into four compartments holding a dozen chicks each. They came by U.S. Mail leaving every rural post office a stinking, cheeping repository for chicks waiting for owner pickup. Like most cute babies, fluffy chicks grow up to be adults. A large flock of grown chickens can create a lot of litter. The most dreaded words I heard as a young boy was, "Your mother says the chicken houses need to be cleaned out."....
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Neptune's air tankers to stay grounded Federal officials on Monday denied a Missoula company's request to return its large air tankers to service to fight wildfires, saying additional information was needed first on the life of the planes. Officials lacked information on "operational life limit" of Neptune Aviation's aircraft, one of the criteria needed to help prove the tankers airworthy, said Rose Davis, a spokeswoman at the National Interagency Fire Center. "Though Neptune has done a great job of maintaining" the air tankers, she said, "we don't have the stuff from when they were a young airplane to see what they've been through already."....
Sea otters' revival in state waters brings new concerns The summer sea-otter count is an annual ritual for Stafford and a dozen other biologists; this year, they tallied about 700 animals from Destruction Island, near the Hoh river, to the western end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The first census, in 1977, found 19 animals. While most people welcome the otters' return, they already have become a nuisance to others. Voracious eaters, the otters decimated sea urchins in Neah Bay, wiping out a lucrative fishery. A large group of animals then headed down the strait toward Port Angeles, picking the rocky reefs clean and forcing the state to cut back quotas for sea-urchin fishermen....
Alaska high court denies belugas special status Cook Inlet beluga whales won't be getting special protection under the Alaska Endangered Species Act, after a ruling by the Alaska Supreme court. The high court upheld a 2002 decision by a lower court that sided with state officials who declined to list the whales as endangered. The Department of Fish and Game had decided the Cook Inlet belugas, although diminished, weren't immediately threatened with extinction and didn't qualify as a separate subspecies or species under state law....
Removing Dams Can Restore Wildlife Habitat at Small Cost By applying new mathematical techniques to river ecology, a University of Maryland biology professor has found that removing dams to reconnect rivers in a watershed like Oregon's Willamette River could result in significant wildlife habitat restoration benefits at a comparatively small economic cost. William Fagan, associate professor of biology at the University of Maryland, presented his findings at the Society for Conservation Biology's Annual meeting, last week at Columbia University....
Beetle proving effective in fight against salt cedar in Nevada A tiny beetle is proving effective in killing a weedy shrub blamed for sucking precious water out of streams and lakes in Nevada and the West. Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno say the leaf-eating beetle, called Diorhabda elongata, could prove helpful in restoring native vegetation in areas choked by thirsty salt cedar, also called tamarisk. "This has been one of the most successful biocontrol projects in all my 25 years in entomology in Nevada," said Jeff Knight, a partner in the project with the state Department of Agriculture. "It has had a dramatic impact on the ecosystems in Nevada agriculture: water levels, wildlife and riparian bird habitats."....
Wyoming to spend federal money on wolf planning The state Game and Fish Department will start spending some $203,000 in federal money this year to help Wyoming prepare to assume management of gray wolves even as the state fights the federal government over the issue in court. Some of the money from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be used to increase monitoring big game species such as elk, deer, moose and antelope that are food sources for wolves....
Foes vow court fight over land-use rules Supporters and opponents of the tough environmental policies proposed by County Executive Ron Sims said they have the law on their side, and it is hard to know how a court would rule. The most controversial proposal — and the one many rural property owners consider an illegal "taking" of their land — would require that native vegetation be preserved on 65 percent of each parcel....
Prairie dogs threaten gas development In Northwest Colorado, the white-tailed prairie dog has the potential to become as great an issue as the greater sage grouse, the president of a Denver energy company said. Environmental groups such as the Center For Native Ecosystems in Denver have gone through a variety of channels to protect the prairie dog. In Moffat County, they have protested the renewal of every gas lease in the Sand Wash Basin since November, Fred Julander, president of Julander Energy Company, told the Moffat County Commissioners during a meeting Monday....
Groups sue to protect songbird Two conservation groups are suing the Interior Department to protect a small songbird in the Black Hills. The lawsuit to protect the American dipper was filed in Washington, D.C., by Biodiversity Conservation Associates of Laramie, Wyo., and by the Center for Native Ecosystems, of Denver. Last year, the two groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to place the declining Black Hills population of American dippers on the endangered species list. (The state listed the birds as "threatened" in 1996.)....
County joins state wolf lawsuit Park County will join the state's lawsuit about wolves and demand the federal government accept Wyoming's plan, de-list the wolf and allow the state to control livestock and wildlife depredation. County attorney Bryan Skoric made that announcement Monday, saying the county was notified July 26 it could intervene. "As a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Park County can now align itself with the state to argue that the federal government has failed to de-list and properly manage the gray wolf population in Wyoming," he said....
Federal court awards $2.3 million in drowning death The National Park Service was liable for the drowning death of a New York woman who fell into a Maui stream and was swept out to sea, a federal judge in Honolulu ruled Monday. Visiting U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie awarded $2.3 million in damages in the May 4, 2002, death of Xina Wang at Haleakala National Park. Wang, 42, fell while trying to cross Oheo Stream near the Oheo Pools, and was swept over several water falls and out to sea, where she drowned....
Column: Banning the Better Alternative On June 17, the House defeated an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 4568) to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The amendment, sponsored by Reps. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Christopher Shays (R-CT), Timothy Johnson (R-IL), and Nick Rahall (D-WV), would have banned all use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in order to reduce air and noise emissions. In essence, this amendment would have effectively reinstated a since-repealed Clinton-era rule banning snowmobiles in these parks. Limited snowmobile use in these areas provides recreationists a chance to see the splendor of the parks in the winter and allows residents in related “gateway” communities to maintain their livelihoods. The Senate should follow the commonsense lead of the House and reject any proposals that would ban responsible use of snowmobiles....
3 bears in Katmai shot and left to rot Three brown bears were found shot and left dead on the tundra last week along a popular bear-viewing stream near the northern border of Katmai National Park and Preserve, prompting a criminal investigation by National Park Service rangers with help from Alaska State Troopers. The animals, including an adult female that had been actively nursing, appeared to have been killed illegally near Funnel Creek about 12 miles south of Iliamna Lake, according to rangers working the case....
BLM OKs drilling in remote area The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved a 385-well natural gas project east of the Adobe Town area. Marathon Oil, EOG Resources, Yates Petroleum and other companies plan to drill the gas and disposal wells at 361 sites. The project will also involve building or improving 450 miles of roads and 361 miles of pipeline, and building four compressor stations, a gas processing plant and three water evaporation ponds. Drilling will continue for about 20 years, producing about 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas....
Emergency Removal of Horses But Not Cattle Citing the threat of imminent starvation, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced an emergency removal of all wild horses from northwest Wyoming, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Between August 5 and 8, BLM will permanently remove approximately 140 wild horses from the 83,000-acre Fifteenmile Wild Horse Herd Management Area (located between Casper and Cody) because range conditions have deteriorated to the point where the current 210-horse herd can no longer be sustained. "Responsible range management has been utterly abandoned by BLM in Wyoming," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch whose organization nearly a year ago requested an investigation by the Interior Office of Inspector General into obstruction of BLM-Wyoming's enforcement against overgrazing violations. "Things are pretty pathetic when an 83,000-acre refuge can no longer support 200 head of horses."....
"CULTURE OF FEAR" AT INTERIOR Workers within the U.S. Department of Interior live in a "culture of fear" where "hatchet people" mete out punishment based on office politics, according to an agency-wide survey and investigative report quietly posted by the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) late last week. Survey results mirror reports from Interior staff received daily at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) from employees ranging from rank and file staff to park superintendents and other top managers who feel that they cannot disclose problems without facing retribution....
EPA wants 6 streams added to pollution list The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Colorado regulators to add six stream and river stretches to the state's list of polluted waters, a directive requiring cleanup plans be fashioned for the waterways. A state regulatory board that oversees water quality in Colorado had declined to include the rivers on its original list, adopted in March. But in an unprecedented move in Colorado, the EPA recently overruled that board, and wants the streams to join the 117 on the list....
Using Chain Saws, Environmentalists Protest Roadless Forest Repeal Environmentalists gave Vice President Dick Cheney (website/newsbio) a 21-chain saw salute Monday in Fayetteville. The salute was intended to protest a Bush administration plan to roll back the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The 2001 rule limits construction in national forests....
Native American Tribes Vow to Clean Up Yukon River Growing up in Galena, Alaska, First Chief Peter Captain, Sr., drank water straight from the Yukon River. "But that was a long time ago," said the 57-year-old chief of the Louden Tribal Council. "You can't do that now without getting sick." Stretching through some of the most pristine wilderness in North America, the 2,300-mile-long (3,700-kilometer-long) Yukon River has become increasingly polluted from raw sewage flowing into the river and decades of runoff waste from mines and military sites....
Trade Talks Progress, Enviros Try to Shield Natural Resources World Trade Organization (WTO) talks advanced on Saturday with agreements that will lead to more open markets for agriculture, goods and services, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. But environmentalists warn the deal establishes an agenda that could threaten people and the environment worldwide by liberalizing trade in all natural resources. They fear that more liberal trade rules for natural resources will lead to a rush to exploit minerals, forests and fish, depleting resources that are already stretched thin....
Judge's decision on NAWS could come within a month A federal judge in Washington, D.C., could soon decide whether a project to bring Missouri River water to northwest and north-central North Dakota requires more study. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer heard arguments in the case late last week. "Both sides have filed a motion for summary judgment," state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said. "I expect we will have her decision within a month or so." The province of Manitoba sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its parent agency, the Interior Department, in October 2002, challenging the Northwest Area Water Supply project. Canadian officials are worried about the potential transfer of unwanted aquatic life into the Hudson Bay Basin. They are seeking a more comprehensive environmental review....
Chuckwagon builder keeps Old West cowboy life alive Once a cowboy, always a cowboy. That sentiment certainly applies to John Wolf, who makes old-fashioned pioneer vehicles in his shop in the northern edge of Lea County. His hands are calloused from the numerous hours he toils building authentic chuckwagons. Wolf rode chuckwagons on ranches he grew up on in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico while the Great Depression gripped much of the country....
The "little woman" is a mighty force A ranch wife will leave at daylight with the boss, after breakfast is cooked and the kitchen tidied up, horses saddled and lunch packed. Many of those days there is no lunch because the all day event was one of those “it’ll only take a little while” projects. They will be horseback all day fighting cows and elements and all the things that can and do go wrong. She’ll find a way to shut a barbwire gate that only a he-man body builder would be able to pull up to the gate post. She’ll sit and wait patiently for hours on end right where he told her to wait. Then she’ll find out he expected her to read his mind when he changed his mind. She’ll take a cussin’ when it should really have been for the cow that ticked him off in the first place....
Neptune's air tankers to stay grounded Federal officials on Monday denied a Missoula company's request to return its large air tankers to service to fight wildfires, saying additional information was needed first on the life of the planes. Officials lacked information on "operational life limit" of Neptune Aviation's aircraft, one of the criteria needed to help prove the tankers airworthy, said Rose Davis, a spokeswoman at the National Interagency Fire Center. "Though Neptune has done a great job of maintaining" the air tankers, she said, "we don't have the stuff from when they were a young airplane to see what they've been through already."....
Sea otters' revival in state waters brings new concerns The summer sea-otter count is an annual ritual for Stafford and a dozen other biologists; this year, they tallied about 700 animals from Destruction Island, near the Hoh river, to the western end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The first census, in 1977, found 19 animals. While most people welcome the otters' return, they already have become a nuisance to others. Voracious eaters, the otters decimated sea urchins in Neah Bay, wiping out a lucrative fishery. A large group of animals then headed down the strait toward Port Angeles, picking the rocky reefs clean and forcing the state to cut back quotas for sea-urchin fishermen....
Alaska high court denies belugas special status Cook Inlet beluga whales won't be getting special protection under the Alaska Endangered Species Act, after a ruling by the Alaska Supreme court. The high court upheld a 2002 decision by a lower court that sided with state officials who declined to list the whales as endangered. The Department of Fish and Game had decided the Cook Inlet belugas, although diminished, weren't immediately threatened with extinction and didn't qualify as a separate subspecies or species under state law....
Removing Dams Can Restore Wildlife Habitat at Small Cost By applying new mathematical techniques to river ecology, a University of Maryland biology professor has found that removing dams to reconnect rivers in a watershed like Oregon's Willamette River could result in significant wildlife habitat restoration benefits at a comparatively small economic cost. William Fagan, associate professor of biology at the University of Maryland, presented his findings at the Society for Conservation Biology's Annual meeting, last week at Columbia University....
Beetle proving effective in fight against salt cedar in Nevada A tiny beetle is proving effective in killing a weedy shrub blamed for sucking precious water out of streams and lakes in Nevada and the West. Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno say the leaf-eating beetle, called Diorhabda elongata, could prove helpful in restoring native vegetation in areas choked by thirsty salt cedar, also called tamarisk. "This has been one of the most successful biocontrol projects in all my 25 years in entomology in Nevada," said Jeff Knight, a partner in the project with the state Department of Agriculture. "It has had a dramatic impact on the ecosystems in Nevada agriculture: water levels, wildlife and riparian bird habitats."....
Wyoming to spend federal money on wolf planning The state Game and Fish Department will start spending some $203,000 in federal money this year to help Wyoming prepare to assume management of gray wolves even as the state fights the federal government over the issue in court. Some of the money from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be used to increase monitoring big game species such as elk, deer, moose and antelope that are food sources for wolves....
Foes vow court fight over land-use rules Supporters and opponents of the tough environmental policies proposed by County Executive Ron Sims said they have the law on their side, and it is hard to know how a court would rule. The most controversial proposal — and the one many rural property owners consider an illegal "taking" of their land — would require that native vegetation be preserved on 65 percent of each parcel....
Prairie dogs threaten gas development In Northwest Colorado, the white-tailed prairie dog has the potential to become as great an issue as the greater sage grouse, the president of a Denver energy company said. Environmental groups such as the Center For Native Ecosystems in Denver have gone through a variety of channels to protect the prairie dog. In Moffat County, they have protested the renewal of every gas lease in the Sand Wash Basin since November, Fred Julander, president of Julander Energy Company, told the Moffat County Commissioners during a meeting Monday....
Groups sue to protect songbird Two conservation groups are suing the Interior Department to protect a small songbird in the Black Hills. The lawsuit to protect the American dipper was filed in Washington, D.C., by Biodiversity Conservation Associates of Laramie, Wyo., and by the Center for Native Ecosystems, of Denver. Last year, the two groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to place the declining Black Hills population of American dippers on the endangered species list. (The state listed the birds as "threatened" in 1996.)....
County joins state wolf lawsuit Park County will join the state's lawsuit about wolves and demand the federal government accept Wyoming's plan, de-list the wolf and allow the state to control livestock and wildlife depredation. County attorney Bryan Skoric made that announcement Monday, saying the county was notified July 26 it could intervene. "As a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Park County can now align itself with the state to argue that the federal government has failed to de-list and properly manage the gray wolf population in Wyoming," he said....
Federal court awards $2.3 million in drowning death The National Park Service was liable for the drowning death of a New York woman who fell into a Maui stream and was swept out to sea, a federal judge in Honolulu ruled Monday. Visiting U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie awarded $2.3 million in damages in the May 4, 2002, death of Xina Wang at Haleakala National Park. Wang, 42, fell while trying to cross Oheo Stream near the Oheo Pools, and was swept over several water falls and out to sea, where she drowned....
Column: Banning the Better Alternative On June 17, the House defeated an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 4568) to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The amendment, sponsored by Reps. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Christopher Shays (R-CT), Timothy Johnson (R-IL), and Nick Rahall (D-WV), would have banned all use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in order to reduce air and noise emissions. In essence, this amendment would have effectively reinstated a since-repealed Clinton-era rule banning snowmobiles in these parks. Limited snowmobile use in these areas provides recreationists a chance to see the splendor of the parks in the winter and allows residents in related “gateway” communities to maintain their livelihoods. The Senate should follow the commonsense lead of the House and reject any proposals that would ban responsible use of snowmobiles....
3 bears in Katmai shot and left to rot Three brown bears were found shot and left dead on the tundra last week along a popular bear-viewing stream near the northern border of Katmai National Park and Preserve, prompting a criminal investigation by National Park Service rangers with help from Alaska State Troopers. The animals, including an adult female that had been actively nursing, appeared to have been killed illegally near Funnel Creek about 12 miles south of Iliamna Lake, according to rangers working the case....
BLM OKs drilling in remote area The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved a 385-well natural gas project east of the Adobe Town area. Marathon Oil, EOG Resources, Yates Petroleum and other companies plan to drill the gas and disposal wells at 361 sites. The project will also involve building or improving 450 miles of roads and 361 miles of pipeline, and building four compressor stations, a gas processing plant and three water evaporation ponds. Drilling will continue for about 20 years, producing about 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas....
Emergency Removal of Horses But Not Cattle Citing the threat of imminent starvation, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced an emergency removal of all wild horses from northwest Wyoming, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Between August 5 and 8, BLM will permanently remove approximately 140 wild horses from the 83,000-acre Fifteenmile Wild Horse Herd Management Area (located between Casper and Cody) because range conditions have deteriorated to the point where the current 210-horse herd can no longer be sustained. "Responsible range management has been utterly abandoned by BLM in Wyoming," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch whose organization nearly a year ago requested an investigation by the Interior Office of Inspector General into obstruction of BLM-Wyoming's enforcement against overgrazing violations. "Things are pretty pathetic when an 83,000-acre refuge can no longer support 200 head of horses."....
"CULTURE OF FEAR" AT INTERIOR Workers within the U.S. Department of Interior live in a "culture of fear" where "hatchet people" mete out punishment based on office politics, according to an agency-wide survey and investigative report quietly posted by the agency's Office of Inspector General (OIG) late last week. Survey results mirror reports from Interior staff received daily at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) from employees ranging from rank and file staff to park superintendents and other top managers who feel that they cannot disclose problems without facing retribution....
EPA wants 6 streams added to pollution list The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Colorado regulators to add six stream and river stretches to the state's list of polluted waters, a directive requiring cleanup plans be fashioned for the waterways. A state regulatory board that oversees water quality in Colorado had declined to include the rivers on its original list, adopted in March. But in an unprecedented move in Colorado, the EPA recently overruled that board, and wants the streams to join the 117 on the list....
Using Chain Saws, Environmentalists Protest Roadless Forest Repeal Environmentalists gave Vice President Dick Cheney (website/newsbio) a 21-chain saw salute Monday in Fayetteville. The salute was intended to protest a Bush administration plan to roll back the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The 2001 rule limits construction in national forests....
Native American Tribes Vow to Clean Up Yukon River Growing up in Galena, Alaska, First Chief Peter Captain, Sr., drank water straight from the Yukon River. "But that was a long time ago," said the 57-year-old chief of the Louden Tribal Council. "You can't do that now without getting sick." Stretching through some of the most pristine wilderness in North America, the 2,300-mile-long (3,700-kilometer-long) Yukon River has become increasingly polluted from raw sewage flowing into the river and decades of runoff waste from mines and military sites....
Trade Talks Progress, Enviros Try to Shield Natural Resources World Trade Organization (WTO) talks advanced on Saturday with agreements that will lead to more open markets for agriculture, goods and services, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. But environmentalists warn the deal establishes an agenda that could threaten people and the environment worldwide by liberalizing trade in all natural resources. They fear that more liberal trade rules for natural resources will lead to a rush to exploit minerals, forests and fish, depleting resources that are already stretched thin....
Judge's decision on NAWS could come within a month A federal judge in Washington, D.C., could soon decide whether a project to bring Missouri River water to northwest and north-central North Dakota requires more study. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer heard arguments in the case late last week. "Both sides have filed a motion for summary judgment," state Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said. "I expect we will have her decision within a month or so." The province of Manitoba sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its parent agency, the Interior Department, in October 2002, challenging the Northwest Area Water Supply project. Canadian officials are worried about the potential transfer of unwanted aquatic life into the Hudson Bay Basin. They are seeking a more comprehensive environmental review....
Chuckwagon builder keeps Old West cowboy life alive Once a cowboy, always a cowboy. That sentiment certainly applies to John Wolf, who makes old-fashioned pioneer vehicles in his shop in the northern edge of Lea County. His hands are calloused from the numerous hours he toils building authentic chuckwagons. Wolf rode chuckwagons on ranches he grew up on in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico while the Great Depression gripped much of the country....
The "little woman" is a mighty force A ranch wife will leave at daylight with the boss, after breakfast is cooked and the kitchen tidied up, horses saddled and lunch packed. Many of those days there is no lunch because the all day event was one of those “it’ll only take a little while” projects. They will be horseback all day fighting cows and elements and all the things that can and do go wrong. She’ll find a way to shut a barbwire gate that only a he-man body builder would be able to pull up to the gate post. She’ll sit and wait patiently for hours on end right where he told her to wait. Then she’ll find out he expected her to read his mind when he changed his mind. She’ll take a cussin’ when it should really have been for the cow that ticked him off in the first place....
Monday, August 02, 2004
NEWS ROUNDUP
Feds twist facts for logging, critics say The Forest Service exaggerated the effect of wildfires on California spotted owls to justify a planned increase in logging in the Sierra Nevada, according to a longtime agency expert who worked on the plan. Other wildlife biologists inside and outside the Forest Service confirm that at least seven of 18 sites listed by the agency as owl habitat destroyed by wildfires are green, flourishing and occupied by the rare birds of prey....
Elk Making a Comeback Across the West An estimated 8 million to 10 million elk roamed America before white settlers arrived, including about a half-million in California until gold-seekers nearly wiped them out. Now the elk are making a comeback across the West, expanding both their numbers and their range. That means more hunting and recreation opportunities, but also potential conflicts with landowners who may one day find themselves dealing with herds that can number in the hundreds and even thousands in wintering areas like Yellowstone National Park....
Grizzly bear habitat subject of study If the grizzly bear is taken off the threatened species list, the Forest Service has proposed options for management of grizzly habitat in the six national forests around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The agency has released a draft environmental statement (DEIS) that presents four options. Comments are required by Nov. 12....
Forest dwellers drive up fire costs, officials claim Paradise has a price, and Kathy Schulz knows it could be going up. Her family’s home sits in a pine forest, a 10-minute drive west of Bend, alongside Tumalo Creek. It is a beautiful place, but during fire season it is at risk. Properties such as these, state officials say, are helping drive up the costs of preventing and combating wildfires in Oregon’s privately owned forests and increasingly developed urban-rural fringes. Like other homeowners in the forest, Schulz and her family already pay an annual $38 fee to the state to help pay for fire-protection efforts in addition to traditional insurance. And she is willing to pay more....
430-plus ancient Indian items seized from residence More than 430 Indian artifacts ranging up to thousands of years old have been seized from a home in what one agent describes as the single largest recovery of his career. In a case reminiscent of a Tony Hillerman novel, hundreds of stone tools, including arrow points, cutting edges, cookware and other trade items were recovered from the home of David Major, 38, investigators said....
Officials consider killing ravens to protect desert tortoise Wildlife officials are considering plans to shoot and poison ravens to keep them from preying on threatened desert tortoises. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other government agencies are seeking ways to protect the desert tortoise as its population dwindles due to ravens that feed on its young and other dangers, officials said. Those actions could include reducing food sources that attract ravens to the species' habitat by removing dead animals from roadways and changing landfill practices. Officials may also modify potential nesting sites like utility poles....
Column: Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon Ancient public forests out West are under attack as usual this year. Thankfully, courageous activists in Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest are attempting to fend off the worst of the pillage. On July 16 the US Forest Service placed 1900 acres of public land on the auction block. And by the end of the day the bids were in; 1160 of the 1900 acres were mapped out for demolition. The venture, titled the "Biscuit Fire Recovery Project", is the largest forest service sale in modern US history. When all is said and done 30 square miles of federal land could be handed over to chainsaw happy timber barons. Not surprisingly, the Forest Service wants us to believe the sale is for "restoration" purposes only, not profit, as the area fell victim to massive natural wild fires in the summer of 2002. But if you don't already know, you shouldn't believe everything the government tells you....
Hope grows for bill to add wilderness Legislation that would turn more than 300,000 acres of federal forestlands into protected wilderness along California's North Coast received a warm reception before a Senate committee last month, suggesting that a key piece of a massive wilderness bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., may finally be moving. But with just a few workweeks remaining in the election-shortened congressional session and politicians maneuvering for every political advantage they can, it's uncertain how much further the legislation will go this year....
Column: Uncle Sam's reality The federal government owns nearly 33 percent of all the land in the United States. Why? Nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government to own any land beyond Washington D.C., and that which may be required "...for the erection of forts, arsenals, dock-yards and other needful buildings...," and then, only when purchased from the state, with the approval of the state legislature. (Article I, Section 8) Why, then, does the government own so much land? Why is the government gobbling up more and more land through dozens of programs that use tax dollars to buy land from private owners?....
Petrified forest revealed on remote Alaskan island If you want to stroll through the only forest in the Shumagin Islands, you have to wear rubber boots and wait until the tide goes out. In the Shumagins, where the wind never seems to stop, only change directions, the few live trees were planted by people. But along a stretch of beach on the northwest corner of Unga Island, there's a grove that hasn't grown for millions of years. Wind and water have worn away a 50-foot bluff to reveal a forest of petrified tree stumps that appear to be marching into the ocean....
Column: Water issues key to N. Arizona land swap All the stakeholders in the proposed exchange of private and public lands in Northern Arizona must come together in a timely manner to ensure that northern Arizonans do not turn on their faucets and find themselves without water. Since introducing legislation last year to facilitate the Northern Arizona land exchange of more than 50,000 acres, I have gained a much greater understanding of the crucial need for sound management of the region's dwindling water supplies to accompany any future development in the area....
Requiem for emptied-out western Kansas So here comes one-time governor and all-out sportsman Mike Hayden talking as if hunters, not farmers, will save western Kansas. He's saying farm irrigation has used up nearly all the water that's cheap enough to pump. Anyone in range of his voice — a twang perpetually stuck on full volume — hears about the moneymaking promise of wildlife and the poor prospects of Great Plains agriculture. Most jarring, he suggests government take back land bit by dusty bit, letting the weeds grow and buffalo roam....
Official says part of Ponderosa Ranch could become public A portion of the Ponderosa Ranch — 570-acres of prime land in Incline Village that was sold earlier this month to a private party — still stands a chance of becoming public lands, a spokesman for the new owner said Friday. “Nothing is off the table at this time,” said Tom Clark, a spokesman for David Duffield, the Incline Village philanthropist and billionaire who is buying the tourist attraction for an undisclosed amount....
USFS defends Bridger-Teton leasing While conservation groups criticize the opening of more than 100,000 acres in Bridger-Teton National Forest for gas leasing, forest officials say any drilling proposal would be saddled with stringent environmental regulations. Bridger-Teton Deputy Supervisor Brent Larson also pointed out that issuing a lease does not necessarily result in drilling. "Our experience has shown here it's not going to mean that every acre is going to have disturbance on it," he said. Forest managers have been trying to catch up on a backlog of oil and gas lease nominations from the late 1990s....
Editorial: Seeing the forest for the degrees A forest owned by the state of Oregon and harvested sustainably to help pay for college might look like any other forest. But every tree would symbolize one more person in Oregon who could get a college education without signing up for a lifetime of debt. Gov. Ted Kulongoski should pursue this idea of buying forestland as a long-term public investment. It'll be tricky to pull off, but the state needs to find multiple ways to save for college, just as families do. The governor's staff has floated the idea of the state purchasing forestland for higher education, as The Oregonian's Michael Milstein and Shelby Oppel reported last week. Ideally, the plan would support logging communities, protect Oregon's forests and send more people to college....
Barbed wire: Delayed decisions cost money - and heartburn Delay is expensive. It costs millions of dollars. That aphorism was driven home recently concerning the most fundamental elements of life in Montana: water and land. Water rights and grazing rights are more than esoteric legalisms. In a state where timely arrival of moisture determines the gain or loss of millions of dollars of income for farmers and ranchers, there are no other subjects that spark more anxiety than the prospect of losing either or both of those rights....
Solutions aren't easy at Antelope Basin Antelope Basin comprises 48,000 acres -- 75 square miles -- managed by the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest. It looks healthy and most people agree it's in better shape than it was a few decades ago. When a rancher like Bob Sitz looks at this place, he sees generations of work to improve the range: 111 miles of fence to keep cattle from overgrazing any one area; 44 miles of pipes, through which water is pumped from creeks to stock tanks on high ground so cattle don't trample riparian areas. But wildlife advocates look across the meadows and see what's missing on the landscape: free-ranging bison, bighorn sheep and sage grouse....
Horses, kids learn lessons in good behavior Joseph Hardin said he used to get into trouble before he met "Buffalo Bud" Lovelady and Champagne the wild mustang. Now the 11-year-old Valley Center boy wins behavior awards at school, said his mother, Bernita Hardin. It all makes sense to Joseph. "The horses train me how to be good because I teach them," he said. "When I train them and tell them what to do, that's what a mom is supposed to do and you're supposed to listen."....
Cooper takes Frontier roping title Clint Cooper no longer is trying to prove he can rope as good as his father, Hall of Famer Roy Cooper. The younger Cooper, 22, of Decatur, Texas, is learning to relax and just be himself - and it's paying off. On Sunday he chalked up one of the biggest wins of his fledgling career, the tie-down roping title at the 108th Cheyenne Frontier Days, one of the most prestigious and richest stops on the tour....
Lonesome Dove Revisited: Southwest Writers Collection extends and expands popular exhibit Responding to an overwhelming number of visitors to the "Lonesome Dove Revisited" exhibit, Southwestern Writers Collection (SWWC) curator Connie Todd recently announced that the show would be extended until the end of August. As an added bonus, Lonesome Dove fans can now view even more costumes and props from the classic CBS miniseries, on both the first and seventh floors of Texas State's Alkek Library where the Southwestern Writers Collection makes its home....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Local weekly is heartbeat of community Small-town papers often thrive because CNN or the New York Times are not going to scoop them for coverage of the "VFW Fish Fry," "Bridge Construction Delay," or local boys and girls playing baseball, receiving scholarships, graduating, getting married or going off to war. I think of local papers as the last refuge of unfiltered America: a running documentary of the warts and triumphs of real people unfettered by the spin, the bias and the opaque polish of today's homogenized journalism. It is the difference between homemade bread and Pop Tarts....
Feds twist facts for logging, critics say The Forest Service exaggerated the effect of wildfires on California spotted owls to justify a planned increase in logging in the Sierra Nevada, according to a longtime agency expert who worked on the plan. Other wildlife biologists inside and outside the Forest Service confirm that at least seven of 18 sites listed by the agency as owl habitat destroyed by wildfires are green, flourishing and occupied by the rare birds of prey....
Elk Making a Comeback Across the West An estimated 8 million to 10 million elk roamed America before white settlers arrived, including about a half-million in California until gold-seekers nearly wiped them out. Now the elk are making a comeback across the West, expanding both their numbers and their range. That means more hunting and recreation opportunities, but also potential conflicts with landowners who may one day find themselves dealing with herds that can number in the hundreds and even thousands in wintering areas like Yellowstone National Park....
Grizzly bear habitat subject of study If the grizzly bear is taken off the threatened species list, the Forest Service has proposed options for management of grizzly habitat in the six national forests around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The agency has released a draft environmental statement (DEIS) that presents four options. Comments are required by Nov. 12....
Forest dwellers drive up fire costs, officials claim Paradise has a price, and Kathy Schulz knows it could be going up. Her family’s home sits in a pine forest, a 10-minute drive west of Bend, alongside Tumalo Creek. It is a beautiful place, but during fire season it is at risk. Properties such as these, state officials say, are helping drive up the costs of preventing and combating wildfires in Oregon’s privately owned forests and increasingly developed urban-rural fringes. Like other homeowners in the forest, Schulz and her family already pay an annual $38 fee to the state to help pay for fire-protection efforts in addition to traditional insurance. And she is willing to pay more....
430-plus ancient Indian items seized from residence More than 430 Indian artifacts ranging up to thousands of years old have been seized from a home in what one agent describes as the single largest recovery of his career. In a case reminiscent of a Tony Hillerman novel, hundreds of stone tools, including arrow points, cutting edges, cookware and other trade items were recovered from the home of David Major, 38, investigators said....
Officials consider killing ravens to protect desert tortoise Wildlife officials are considering plans to shoot and poison ravens to keep them from preying on threatened desert tortoises. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other government agencies are seeking ways to protect the desert tortoise as its population dwindles due to ravens that feed on its young and other dangers, officials said. Those actions could include reducing food sources that attract ravens to the species' habitat by removing dead animals from roadways and changing landfill practices. Officials may also modify potential nesting sites like utility poles....
Column: Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon Ancient public forests out West are under attack as usual this year. Thankfully, courageous activists in Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest are attempting to fend off the worst of the pillage. On July 16 the US Forest Service placed 1900 acres of public land on the auction block. And by the end of the day the bids were in; 1160 of the 1900 acres were mapped out for demolition. The venture, titled the "Biscuit Fire Recovery Project", is the largest forest service sale in modern US history. When all is said and done 30 square miles of federal land could be handed over to chainsaw happy timber barons. Not surprisingly, the Forest Service wants us to believe the sale is for "restoration" purposes only, not profit, as the area fell victim to massive natural wild fires in the summer of 2002. But if you don't already know, you shouldn't believe everything the government tells you....
Hope grows for bill to add wilderness Legislation that would turn more than 300,000 acres of federal forestlands into protected wilderness along California's North Coast received a warm reception before a Senate committee last month, suggesting that a key piece of a massive wilderness bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., may finally be moving. But with just a few workweeks remaining in the election-shortened congressional session and politicians maneuvering for every political advantage they can, it's uncertain how much further the legislation will go this year....
Column: Uncle Sam's reality The federal government owns nearly 33 percent of all the land in the United States. Why? Nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government to own any land beyond Washington D.C., and that which may be required "...for the erection of forts, arsenals, dock-yards and other needful buildings...," and then, only when purchased from the state, with the approval of the state legislature. (Article I, Section 8) Why, then, does the government own so much land? Why is the government gobbling up more and more land through dozens of programs that use tax dollars to buy land from private owners?....
Petrified forest revealed on remote Alaskan island If you want to stroll through the only forest in the Shumagin Islands, you have to wear rubber boots and wait until the tide goes out. In the Shumagins, where the wind never seems to stop, only change directions, the few live trees were planted by people. But along a stretch of beach on the northwest corner of Unga Island, there's a grove that hasn't grown for millions of years. Wind and water have worn away a 50-foot bluff to reveal a forest of petrified tree stumps that appear to be marching into the ocean....
Column: Water issues key to N. Arizona land swap All the stakeholders in the proposed exchange of private and public lands in Northern Arizona must come together in a timely manner to ensure that northern Arizonans do not turn on their faucets and find themselves without water. Since introducing legislation last year to facilitate the Northern Arizona land exchange of more than 50,000 acres, I have gained a much greater understanding of the crucial need for sound management of the region's dwindling water supplies to accompany any future development in the area....
Requiem for emptied-out western Kansas So here comes one-time governor and all-out sportsman Mike Hayden talking as if hunters, not farmers, will save western Kansas. He's saying farm irrigation has used up nearly all the water that's cheap enough to pump. Anyone in range of his voice — a twang perpetually stuck on full volume — hears about the moneymaking promise of wildlife and the poor prospects of Great Plains agriculture. Most jarring, he suggests government take back land bit by dusty bit, letting the weeds grow and buffalo roam....
Official says part of Ponderosa Ranch could become public A portion of the Ponderosa Ranch — 570-acres of prime land in Incline Village that was sold earlier this month to a private party — still stands a chance of becoming public lands, a spokesman for the new owner said Friday. “Nothing is off the table at this time,” said Tom Clark, a spokesman for David Duffield, the Incline Village philanthropist and billionaire who is buying the tourist attraction for an undisclosed amount....
USFS defends Bridger-Teton leasing While conservation groups criticize the opening of more than 100,000 acres in Bridger-Teton National Forest for gas leasing, forest officials say any drilling proposal would be saddled with stringent environmental regulations. Bridger-Teton Deputy Supervisor Brent Larson also pointed out that issuing a lease does not necessarily result in drilling. "Our experience has shown here it's not going to mean that every acre is going to have disturbance on it," he said. Forest managers have been trying to catch up on a backlog of oil and gas lease nominations from the late 1990s....
Editorial: Seeing the forest for the degrees A forest owned by the state of Oregon and harvested sustainably to help pay for college might look like any other forest. But every tree would symbolize one more person in Oregon who could get a college education without signing up for a lifetime of debt. Gov. Ted Kulongoski should pursue this idea of buying forestland as a long-term public investment. It'll be tricky to pull off, but the state needs to find multiple ways to save for college, just as families do. The governor's staff has floated the idea of the state purchasing forestland for higher education, as The Oregonian's Michael Milstein and Shelby Oppel reported last week. Ideally, the plan would support logging communities, protect Oregon's forests and send more people to college....
Barbed wire: Delayed decisions cost money - and heartburn Delay is expensive. It costs millions of dollars. That aphorism was driven home recently concerning the most fundamental elements of life in Montana: water and land. Water rights and grazing rights are more than esoteric legalisms. In a state where timely arrival of moisture determines the gain or loss of millions of dollars of income for farmers and ranchers, there are no other subjects that spark more anxiety than the prospect of losing either or both of those rights....
Solutions aren't easy at Antelope Basin Antelope Basin comprises 48,000 acres -- 75 square miles -- managed by the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest. It looks healthy and most people agree it's in better shape than it was a few decades ago. When a rancher like Bob Sitz looks at this place, he sees generations of work to improve the range: 111 miles of fence to keep cattle from overgrazing any one area; 44 miles of pipes, through which water is pumped from creeks to stock tanks on high ground so cattle don't trample riparian areas. But wildlife advocates look across the meadows and see what's missing on the landscape: free-ranging bison, bighorn sheep and sage grouse....
Horses, kids learn lessons in good behavior Joseph Hardin said he used to get into trouble before he met "Buffalo Bud" Lovelady and Champagne the wild mustang. Now the 11-year-old Valley Center boy wins behavior awards at school, said his mother, Bernita Hardin. It all makes sense to Joseph. "The horses train me how to be good because I teach them," he said. "When I train them and tell them what to do, that's what a mom is supposed to do and you're supposed to listen."....
Cooper takes Frontier roping title Clint Cooper no longer is trying to prove he can rope as good as his father, Hall of Famer Roy Cooper. The younger Cooper, 22, of Decatur, Texas, is learning to relax and just be himself - and it's paying off. On Sunday he chalked up one of the biggest wins of his fledgling career, the tie-down roping title at the 108th Cheyenne Frontier Days, one of the most prestigious and richest stops on the tour....
Lonesome Dove Revisited: Southwest Writers Collection extends and expands popular exhibit Responding to an overwhelming number of visitors to the "Lonesome Dove Revisited" exhibit, Southwestern Writers Collection (SWWC) curator Connie Todd recently announced that the show would be extended until the end of August. As an added bonus, Lonesome Dove fans can now view even more costumes and props from the classic CBS miniseries, on both the first and seventh floors of Texas State's Alkek Library where the Southwestern Writers Collection makes its home....
On The Edge Of Common Sense: Local weekly is heartbeat of community Small-town papers often thrive because CNN or the New York Times are not going to scoop them for coverage of the "VFW Fish Fry," "Bridge Construction Delay," or local boys and girls playing baseball, receiving scholarships, graduating, getting married or going off to war. I think of local papers as the last refuge of unfiltered America: a running documentary of the warts and triumphs of real people unfettered by the spin, the bias and the opaque polish of today's homogenized journalism. It is the difference between homemade bread and Pop Tarts....
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Landmark Eminent Domain Abuse Decision: Michigan Supreme Court Halts Eminent Domain For “Economic Development”
In a case with nationwide implications to halt the abuse of eminent domain, the Michigan Supreme Court last night reversed its infamous Poletown decision, which had allowed the condemnation of private property for so-called “economic development.” In a unanimous decision in County of Wayne v. Hathcock, issued at 9:30 p.m. on Friday, July 30, the Court decisively rejected the notion that “a private entity’s pursuit of profit was a ‘public use’ for constitutional takings purposes simply because one entity’s profit maximization contributed to the health of the general economy.”
In the 1981 Poletown decision, the Michigan Supreme Court allowed the City of Detroit to bulldoze an entire neighborhood, complete with more than 1,000 residences, 600 businesses, and numerous churches, in order to give the property to General Motors for an auto plant. That case set the precedent, both in Michigan and across the country, for widespread abuse of the power of eminent domain. It sent the signal that courts would not interfere, no matter how private the purpose of the taking.
But in Hathcock, the Court called Poletown a “radical departure from fundamental constitutional principles.” “We overrule Poletown,” the Court wrote, “in order to vindicate our constitution, protect the people’s property rights and preserve the legitimacy of the judicial branch as the expositor, not creator, of fundamental law.”
According to Dana Berliner, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which filed a brief in the Hathcock case, the case has profound nationwide implications. “Poletown was the first major case allowing condemnation of areas in the name of jobs and taxes. It is cited in every property textbook in the country. The Court literally rewrote the book with this decision,” said Berliner. The use of eminent domain for private development has become increasingly common throughout the United States. According to Public Power, Private Gain, authored by Berliner, there were 10,000 properties either taken or threatened with eminent domain for private parties in the U.S. between 1998 and 2002. And state supreme courts from Nevada to Connecticut have relied on the Poletown decision when upholding the condemnation of land for private parties....
Thanks to Julie Smithson at Property Rights Research for the link.
In a case with nationwide implications to halt the abuse of eminent domain, the Michigan Supreme Court last night reversed its infamous Poletown decision, which had allowed the condemnation of private property for so-called “economic development.” In a unanimous decision in County of Wayne v. Hathcock, issued at 9:30 p.m. on Friday, July 30, the Court decisively rejected the notion that “a private entity’s pursuit of profit was a ‘public use’ for constitutional takings purposes simply because one entity’s profit maximization contributed to the health of the general economy.”
In the 1981 Poletown decision, the Michigan Supreme Court allowed the City of Detroit to bulldoze an entire neighborhood, complete with more than 1,000 residences, 600 businesses, and numerous churches, in order to give the property to General Motors for an auto plant. That case set the precedent, both in Michigan and across the country, for widespread abuse of the power of eminent domain. It sent the signal that courts would not interfere, no matter how private the purpose of the taking.
But in Hathcock, the Court called Poletown a “radical departure from fundamental constitutional principles.” “We overrule Poletown,” the Court wrote, “in order to vindicate our constitution, protect the people’s property rights and preserve the legitimacy of the judicial branch as the expositor, not creator, of fundamental law.”
According to Dana Berliner, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which filed a brief in the Hathcock case, the case has profound nationwide implications. “Poletown was the first major case allowing condemnation of areas in the name of jobs and taxes. It is cited in every property textbook in the country. The Court literally rewrote the book with this decision,” said Berliner. The use of eminent domain for private development has become increasingly common throughout the United States. According to Public Power, Private Gain, authored by Berliner, there were 10,000 properties either taken or threatened with eminent domain for private parties in the U.S. between 1998 and 2002. And state supreme courts from Nevada to Connecticut have relied on the Poletown decision when upholding the condemnation of land for private parties....
Thanks to Julie Smithson at Property Rights Research for the link.
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Environmental Groups Get Tax Dollars from the Bush Administration, Urge Voters to Dump Bush
It’s obvious that the environmental movement is determined to oust President Bush from office this November. Spokesmen for the nation’s leading green groups are positively apoplectic in denouncing the Administration....
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has joined the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) to mount anti-Bush efforts in key battleground states. In New Mexico, for instance, LCV is recruiting volunteers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, while the Sierra Club has added two full-time campaign staffers, and NRDC has aired at least two radio spots.
Incredibly, taxpayer money may indirectly subsidize some of these efforts, and the money comes from the Bush Administration! During the first three years of the Administration, NRDC received $2.6 million from the EPA. And NRDC isn’t the only environmental group profiting from federal giveaways.
Audits by the White House Office of Management and Budget reveal that federal grants to disclosing environmental groups totaled $71,989,835 in 1998. By 2004, federal assistance climbed to $143,266,852, a net gain of $71,061,883....
Environmental Groups Get Tax Dollars from the Bush Administration, Urge Voters to Dump Bush
It’s obvious that the environmental movement is determined to oust President Bush from office this November. Spokesmen for the nation’s leading green groups are positively apoplectic in denouncing the Administration....
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has joined the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) to mount anti-Bush efforts in key battleground states. In New Mexico, for instance, LCV is recruiting volunteers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, while the Sierra Club has added two full-time campaign staffers, and NRDC has aired at least two radio spots.
Incredibly, taxpayer money may indirectly subsidize some of these efforts, and the money comes from the Bush Administration! During the first three years of the Administration, NRDC received $2.6 million from the EPA. And NRDC isn’t the only environmental group profiting from federal giveaways.
Audits by the White House Office of Management and Budget reveal that federal grants to disclosing environmental groups totaled $71,989,835 in 1998. By 2004, federal assistance climbed to $143,266,852, a net gain of $71,061,883....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Bush Administration Sells Out Property Rights
During his 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush repeatedly promised the nation that “Help is on the way.” Property rights victims, especially those in Midwestern and Western states, cheered the President’s message and came out in droves to support him on Election Day. Finally, there would be an end to the reckless Clinton regime that treated landowners like second-class citizens and barriers to radical green utopia. Or would there?
It’s been four years since Bush took office and property rights advocates are still waiting for that promised help. In fact, forget help. It would be nice if the White House would just stop working against us.
March 30 of this year provides a perfect snapshot of Bush’s neglect and utter disregard for traditional property rights and those suffering under the tyranny of federal land-use policies. That day, Property Rights Foundation of America President Carol LaGrasse traveled from New York to Washington to testify against the creation of a National Heritage Area (NHA) program. LaGrasse explained to the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks that NHAs are “designed to gradually accomplish federal land use control.” She noted that “The Heritage Area program also has the goal of transferring private land to government.” Indeed, National Heritage Areas spell disaster for property owners.
That very same day, the Bush administration decided to openly promote a National Heritage Area program and pull the rug out from under LaGrasse and property rights advocates nationwide. The U.S. Department of Interior issued a press release stating “the Bush administration is proposing legislation…to establish a National Heritage Area program.” To add insult to injury, National Park Service Deputy Director Randy Jones stated in the release: “These areas also must work closely with all partners in the region, including federal land-management agencies.”
This is the “help” we were promised? More land-use restrictions and federal control over property? Property rights and limited government advocates have successfully fought the creation of a dreaded National Heritage Area program for over a decade! We successfully beat it back during eight painful years of Bill Clinton. Now the Bush administration wants to sell us out to the National Park Service and green special interests....
Bush Administration Sells Out Property Rights
During his 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush repeatedly promised the nation that “Help is on the way.” Property rights victims, especially those in Midwestern and Western states, cheered the President’s message and came out in droves to support him on Election Day. Finally, there would be an end to the reckless Clinton regime that treated landowners like second-class citizens and barriers to radical green utopia. Or would there?
It’s been four years since Bush took office and property rights advocates are still waiting for that promised help. In fact, forget help. It would be nice if the White House would just stop working against us.
March 30 of this year provides a perfect snapshot of Bush’s neglect and utter disregard for traditional property rights and those suffering under the tyranny of federal land-use policies. That day, Property Rights Foundation of America President Carol LaGrasse traveled from New York to Washington to testify against the creation of a National Heritage Area (NHA) program. LaGrasse explained to the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks that NHAs are “designed to gradually accomplish federal land use control.” She noted that “The Heritage Area program also has the goal of transferring private land to government.” Indeed, National Heritage Areas spell disaster for property owners.
That very same day, the Bush administration decided to openly promote a National Heritage Area program and pull the rug out from under LaGrasse and property rights advocates nationwide. The U.S. Department of Interior issued a press release stating “the Bush administration is proposing legislation…to establish a National Heritage Area program.” To add insult to injury, National Park Service Deputy Director Randy Jones stated in the release: “These areas also must work closely with all partners in the region, including federal land-management agencies.”
This is the “help” we were promised? More land-use restrictions and federal control over property? Property rights and limited government advocates have successfully fought the creation of a dreaded National Heritage Area program for over a decade! We successfully beat it back during eight painful years of Bill Clinton. Now the Bush administration wants to sell us out to the National Park Service and green special interests....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
New Study Shows Hefty Price Tag for McCain-Lieberman Bill
U.S. Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) in January 2004 introduced a modified version of the Climate Stewardship Act they had championed in 2003. A new study by Charles Rivers Associates documents the hefty national and state-by-state costs the modified McCain-Lieberman bill would impose.
McCain-Lieberman 2004 retains the mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2010, but it drops the subsequent requirement to reduce emissions to 1990 levels. Charles Rivers Associates, in cooperation with the National Black Chamber of Commerce's United for Jobs project, analyzed the projected costs of McCain-Lieberman 2004 in a study released in June.
According to the study, McCain-Lieberman 2004
---will cost the average U.S. household at least $600 per year by 2010, rising to at least $1,000 per year by 2020;
---will cost the U.S. economy at least 39,000 jobs in 2010, and at least 190,000 jobs by 2020;
---will force at least a 13 percent rise in electricity prices by 2010, and at least a 19 percent rise in electricity prices by 2020; and
---will force at least a 9 percent rise in gasoline prices by 2010, and at least a 14 percent rise in gasoline prices by 2020....
New Study Shows Hefty Price Tag for McCain-Lieberman Bill
U.S. Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Connecticut) in January 2004 introduced a modified version of the Climate Stewardship Act they had championed in 2003. A new study by Charles Rivers Associates documents the hefty national and state-by-state costs the modified McCain-Lieberman bill would impose.
McCain-Lieberman 2004 retains the mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2010, but it drops the subsequent requirement to reduce emissions to 1990 levels. Charles Rivers Associates, in cooperation with the National Black Chamber of Commerce's United for Jobs project, analyzed the projected costs of McCain-Lieberman 2004 in a study released in June.
According to the study, McCain-Lieberman 2004
---will cost the average U.S. household at least $600 per year by 2010, rising to at least $1,000 per year by 2020;
---will cost the U.S. economy at least 39,000 jobs in 2010, and at least 190,000 jobs by 2020;
---will force at least a 13 percent rise in electricity prices by 2010, and at least a 19 percent rise in electricity prices by 2020; and
---will force at least a 9 percent rise in gasoline prices by 2010, and at least a 14 percent rise in gasoline prices by 2020....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
The EPA Withdraws Inaccurate Smart Growth–Traffic Congestion Report
In February 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released Characteristics and Performance of Regional Transportation Systems,1 a report that purported to prove that communities built along 19th century urban designs experienced less traffic congestion than those built to design standards typical of the modern suburb. The report, however, proved no such thing. Indeed, the report was so contrived and lacking in analytical rigor and integrity that a formal complaint by another federal agency led the EPA to withdraw the report within two months of its release. To close observers of the EPA's traditional bias against cars and its recent cultivation of a fashionable dislike of suburbs, it was only a matter of time before the EPA would combine these two biases into a single document, and Characteristics was the unhappy result.
Ever since its creation in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon, the EPA and its supporters in the environmental movement have conducted a vigorous campaign against the automobile, using the agency's clout to discourage road building and driving and to impose increasingly onerous and costly regulations on automobile owners and the residents of metropolitan areas that the EPA finds are not in attainment of current clean air standards. Reflecting its anti-automobile bias, the EPA's purported remedies often seem to be aimed more at reducing automobile use than at seriously improving air quality....
The EPA Withdraws Inaccurate Smart Growth–Traffic Congestion Report
In February 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released Characteristics and Performance of Regional Transportation Systems,1 a report that purported to prove that communities built along 19th century urban designs experienced less traffic congestion than those built to design standards typical of the modern suburb. The report, however, proved no such thing. Indeed, the report was so contrived and lacking in analytical rigor and integrity that a formal complaint by another federal agency led the EPA to withdraw the report within two months of its release. To close observers of the EPA's traditional bias against cars and its recent cultivation of a fashionable dislike of suburbs, it was only a matter of time before the EPA would combine these two biases into a single document, and Characteristics was the unhappy result.
Ever since its creation in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon, the EPA and its supporters in the environmental movement have conducted a vigorous campaign against the automobile, using the agency's clout to discourage road building and driving and to impose increasingly onerous and costly regulations on automobile owners and the residents of metropolitan areas that the EPA finds are not in attainment of current clean air standards. Reflecting its anti-automobile bias, the EPA's purported remedies often seem to be aimed more at reducing automobile use than at seriously improving air quality....
OPINION/COMMENTARY
CONDEMNING LAND FOR "PUBLIC PURPOSES"?
The power of eminent domain, which allows government to take private property for public use, has been overextended by cities across the country in the name of redevelopment, according to the Goldwater Institute.
In Arizona, properties have been labeled as “condemned” by local governments if they are viewed as being too old or ugly. In fact, many cities label downtown areas as potential “redevelopment” zones, which discourage property owners from upgrading their businesses for fear their property would eventually be condemned by the city for other uses:
---A 1965 Arizona Supreme Court ruling allowed the taking of private property under a loosely-defined meaning of public use, which included public convenience and advantage.
---A 1983 Arizona ruling allowed for the taking of private property by local governments in order to transfer it to other private owners for more preferred development projects.
In 2003, however, the Arizona legislature passed laws that restricted the use of eminent domain by local governments. Moreover, some Arizona cities have looked to the example of Seattle for redeveloping downtown areas.
---A once blighted section of downtown Seattle was renovated through a private development plan (without use of eminent domain), and is now home to Pacific Place, a vibrant area of shops and restaurants.
---After the redevelopment, retailers with downtown store locations experienced a 15.8 percent increase in taxable sales, and an estimated 4.4 percent increase in downtown retail jobs.
Similarly, the town of Gilbert, Ariz., is purchasing private parcels of land from voluntary sellers without using eminent domain. And Scottsdale has removed the “redevelopment” label from a downtown area, thus encouraging private property owners to invest in their businesses.
Source: Mark Brnovich, et. al., “Condemning Condemnation: Alternatives to Eminent Domain,” Policy Report 195, June 14, 2004, Goldwater Institute.
For text http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php/454.html
CONDEMNING LAND FOR "PUBLIC PURPOSES"?
The power of eminent domain, which allows government to take private property for public use, has been overextended by cities across the country in the name of redevelopment, according to the Goldwater Institute.
In Arizona, properties have been labeled as “condemned” by local governments if they are viewed as being too old or ugly. In fact, many cities label downtown areas as potential “redevelopment” zones, which discourage property owners from upgrading their businesses for fear their property would eventually be condemned by the city for other uses:
---A 1965 Arizona Supreme Court ruling allowed the taking of private property under a loosely-defined meaning of public use, which included public convenience and advantage.
---A 1983 Arizona ruling allowed for the taking of private property by local governments in order to transfer it to other private owners for more preferred development projects.
In 2003, however, the Arizona legislature passed laws that restricted the use of eminent domain by local governments. Moreover, some Arizona cities have looked to the example of Seattle for redeveloping downtown areas.
---A once blighted section of downtown Seattle was renovated through a private development plan (without use of eminent domain), and is now home to Pacific Place, a vibrant area of shops and restaurants.
---After the redevelopment, retailers with downtown store locations experienced a 15.8 percent increase in taxable sales, and an estimated 4.4 percent increase in downtown retail jobs.
Similarly, the town of Gilbert, Ariz., is purchasing private parcels of land from voluntary sellers without using eminent domain. And Scottsdale has removed the “redevelopment” label from a downtown area, thus encouraging private property owners to invest in their businesses.
Source: Mark Brnovich, et. al., “Condemning Condemnation: Alternatives to Eminent Domain,” Policy Report 195, June 14, 2004, Goldwater Institute.
For text http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php/454.html
OPINION/COMMENTARY
CCF Ad-vises Newsweek Readers: PETA's After Your Child
Marci Hansen, "youth marketing manager" at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), recently complained to the Lowell Sun in Massachusetts that when it comes to her group's efforts to mold children into anti-meat militants, "Parents are tough." They're especially tough when, as Hansen concedes, parents see PETA's animal-rights creed as "a stage, or a way to rebel." And when your job is to go behind parents' backs to reach their kids, that job is tougher still. In our latest advertisement -- running in the back-to-school section of the latest Newsweek -- we ask parents: "What is PETA teaching your child?" Click here to view this full-page ad, which exposes the violent and graphic materials PETA gives to children in a sick attempt to circumvent parents....
CCF Ad-vises Newsweek Readers: PETA's After Your Child
Marci Hansen, "youth marketing manager" at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), recently complained to the Lowell Sun in Massachusetts that when it comes to her group's efforts to mold children into anti-meat militants, "Parents are tough." They're especially tough when, as Hansen concedes, parents see PETA's animal-rights creed as "a stage, or a way to rebel." And when your job is to go behind parents' backs to reach their kids, that job is tougher still. In our latest advertisement -- running in the back-to-school section of the latest Newsweek -- we ask parents: "What is PETA teaching your child?" Click here to view this full-page ad, which exposes the violent and graphic materials PETA gives to children in a sick attempt to circumvent parents....
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